Nuevo León (NL) could recover the equivalent of seven percent of all the water used in the state, if at least ten percent of the resource used by the agricultural sector were made more efficient, considered Aldo Iván Ramírez Orozco, director from the Water Center, Tec de Monterrey.
Therefore, the field is required to modernize or use mechanized irrigation methods, since the water crisis is in yellow spots.
“The issue of water has always been important, but now with this climate variability, we are talking about issues of the effects of climate change, increases in demand in all sectors and then these inefficiencies in management and use, that has already put into question yellow and red spotlights on the water problem,” he commented.
According to the expert, around 70 percent of the water use granted, based on volume, is for the agricultural sector.
“The situation with the use of water in the countryside is where we have the most areas of opportunity and it is where we use it least efficiently, there are large percentages that are dedicated to agricultural and livestock purposes that are not used by plants or animals, particularly for the crops,” said Ramírez Orozco
During last year, the National Water Commission (Conagua) granted 90 permits in Nuevo León (NL) through concessions to extract 12 million 665 thousand 678 cubic meters per year.
Of these, 58.41 percent, that is, seven million 399 thousand 272, were approved in 34 agricultural use titles and 9.79 percent, representing one million 240 thousand 829, for industrial use concessions.
For 2022, INEGI reported that as a consequence of the drought that the state has registered in recent years, 97.24 percent of agricultural production units in the state reported losses, being the highest percentage in the country.
61.5 percent of the agricultural production units in NL used gravity irrigation, 27.39 percent used sprinkler irrigation and 16.31 percent used drip irrigation.
He highlighted that “if in NL 70% of the water is used for agricultural purposes, if we make it more efficient, say ten percent, that means that we would be recovering seven percent of the water used in the state.
That percent is larger than anything used in the industry.
“It is becoming an obligation to look at the countryside and propose innovative schemes or new methodologies that in general make the use of water in that sector more efficient,” he explained.
LOW COSTS DISINCENTIVE SAVINGS
He commented that one of the things that discourages the field from being more efficient is the price that concessionaires pay, since in some areas it is very cheap and in others it has no cost, so modifications would have to be made in the legislation, “we know that something that doesn’t cost, like there isn’t much incentive to save.”
According to Ramírez Orozco, the investment to modernize irrigation areas to consume less water is not enough since it is also a cultural issue, “in many cases the concession holder, instead of giving up the water that is not used, extends the border of irrigation”.
He highlighted that although modernization requires resources, “investments in the sector, from the highest level of government, have been increasingly lower. “Not enough has been invested in real terms.”
He indicated that accessing credits with high interest rates is not an option for farmers, “we would have to look for better alternatives to be able to support them in this reconversion of their plots, either by improving irrigation systems or even by seeking change in crops as such or in cropping patterns.”
He pointed out that politicizing the issue of the water crisis must be avoided at all costs because, like many problems, they can be solved through science, technology and innovation, but “we also have to include the social variable, which is building consensus around problems”. With information from Arturo Bárcenas.
