HAGRO Operational Group: Digital tool for risk management of reclaimed water used for olive grove irrigation

The olive sector must adapt to the new political and institutional context of the European Union, where a synergy is emerging between current agricultural policies, along with environmental and natural resource conservation policies. In this sense, the use of treated wastewater for its intended use and in compliance with the required quality (reclaimed water) is becoming one of the basic strategies available to manage potential imbalances between resource availability and demand; and one of the clearest paradigms of the concept of the Circular Economy.

The use of reclaimed water constitutes a real and practical source of supply for olive grove irrigation, as it offers a local source of water, generally more reliable than conventional sources and with the potential to achieve significant savings in chemical fertilizers (nitrogen, phosphorus).

However, the amount of nutrients supplied by these waters during the irrigation period is not necessarily synchronized with crop requirements, which makes proper fertilizer management difficult in general. The search for alternative sources to alleviate the shortage of conventional resources is of clear strategic interest for irrigation in the European Union and, consequently, for Andalusian society.

An increased interest in the foreseeable consequences of climate change, given that the Union's water resources are under increasing pressure. This is precisely why the European Union is keen to use reclaimed water in irrigated agriculture, which is encouraging the relevant state and regional administrations to use this key asset, also for the implementation of the Circular Economy concept.