Planting of winter vegetable and salad lines in parts of Murcia is being severely hampered by drought.
Growers’ leaders are warning that so far they have only been able to plant a third of the usual volumes of broccoli, lettuce, green beans, celery, cabbage and artichokes due to the drought conditions and the absence of sufficient water from reservoirs for several months.
The worst hit area is the Guadalentín valley although Campo de Cartagena is also suffering drought conditions to a lesser degree. Murcians are saying 2006 is the third-driest year in their history.
“We only have a third of the water we need so we cannot risk [overplanting],” Manuel Soler of an irrigation users group told the Spanish press. “We have made major investment to gain markets and to maintain them and in order to meet customer obligations we are having to plant outside Murcia where there are not the same problems with water.”
Producers from the southern region are therefore planting further west and further inland in Andalusia, Extremadura and Castille-La Mancha. But the result is increased costs putting even more pressure on returns.
And for those producers who do manage to plant in Murcia there is the added problem of water salinity - which Soler reports is damaging the soil and reducing crop yields by 20-30 per cent.
As FPJ went to press, producers were due to demonstrate at the regional water board headquarters in an effort to draw attention to their plight.
Nationwide, the year to October 1, 2006 has finished with water reserves at dangerously low levels: reservoir levels are at just 30 per cent of capacity and rainfall levels at only 11 per cent of a normal year.
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