Saving the Mar Menor with sustainable and precision agriculture by regulating the irrigation of two fundamental areas within the Campo de Cartagena is one of the challenges of Plantae .
CONTACT for BUDGET : Esperanza Pinilla, Sales Director at Murcia. esperanza@plantae.garden / Tlf: 617 70 70 38.
Measures and affected areas to save the Mar Menor
This objective of Plantae has been accelerated after the Bill 1 related to the Recovery and Protection of the Mar Menor BOE-B-2020-24791, published by the Ministry for the ecological transition and the demographic challenge, the Segura Hydrographic Confederation and the Territorial Policy, Environment, Agriculture and Water Commission.
This publication sets out a series of measures and conditions that we want to highlight for you (below you will find detailed information and the link to the BOE):
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Article 32: Provision of information related to the real volume of water supplied and monitoring of its application to irrigation.
2. Irrigated agricultural holdings have devices for measuring the volume of irrigation water applied by sector, and monitoring by sensors of the content and / or matrix potential of the water in the soil (availability of water for cultivation).
Likewise, they must have sensor monitoring systems, control and monitoring of mineral fertilization carried out through irrigation and for the measurement of nitrogen and phosphorus.
3. The new action program, must be approved within a period of three months from the entry into force of this Law, will establish the requirements and characteristics of the monitoring systems, which may be made more flexible for farms with more than 1500 meters from the shore of the Mar Menor and have a surface area of less than 10.
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Article 40: limitations on the use of natural fertilizers.
3. Ammonium nitrate fertilizer (n> 32%) may be used solely and exclusively under technical supervision, reflected in the field notebook (…) and prescriptions endorsed by the agri-environmental operator and provided that the hydric state of the soil is monitored (…) . In no case will its application in horticultural crops be allowed in the last third of its growing cycle.
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Article 53: Additional limitations related to irrigation in certain areas and crops.
The installation of humidity sensors, tensiometers or any other device will be mandatory to support efficient water management throughout the soil profile affected by irrigation. Except for farms with an area of less than 0.5 hectares.
And the regions to which they apply are: Cartagena, La Unión and Fuente Álamo de Murcia.
These areas regulated by Law
- The eastern irrigable Zone 1 (with an approximate total area that "amounts to thirty-one thousand three hundred hectares").
- And Western Irrigable Zone 2 (the total area "amounts to six thousand six hundred hectares").
In addition, this law will apply to the Mar Menor and, totally or partially, to the municipalities of San Pedro del Pinatar, San Javier, Los Alcázares, Torre Pacheco, Murcia, Alhama de Murcia and Mazarrón.
ABSTRACT
What does the Law : ask of you
- Availability of water in the soil.
- Volume of water used in irrigation.
- Use of irrigation and its loss through drainage.
What does it offer you Plantae :
- Sensors for humidity, conductivity, subsoil temperature room temperature to optimize irrigation and collect irrigation data in real time.
- Very easy to install wireless technology.
- Flow meter for each irrigation sector with data on: irrigation start and end time, liters applied, flow in real time.
- Very competitive price with the best technology. Expanding the number of sensors and equipment is simple and inexpensive.
How much does it cost you:
- Data Hub / Receiver
- Cada punto de medición acorde a la exigencia de la Ley:
- 2 sensores de humedad para dos profundidades.
- Un sensor de temperatura de subsuelo.
- Un sensor de conductividad.
- Un caudalímetro.
- Platform service accessible from the computer and mobile, data download to present to the Administration, agronomic support in data interpretation, maintenance, warranty.
- Installation
- Soil analysis
- Total: less than € 795 + VAT, expanding for a lower amount according to your needs.
- CONTACT : Esperanza Pinilla, Sales Director in Murcia. esperanza@plantae.garden / Tlf: 617 70 70 38.
Regulation with the rank of law aimed at saving the Mar Menor
The protection and recovery of the Mar Menor requires reducing the contribution of nutrients that flow into it through various routes, for which important measures that are not normative have to be adopted.
The measures established by the Law to save the Mar Menor are:
a) Environmental and sectoral management instruments.
b) Specific plans and programs to be developed.
c) Cross-cutting management instruments.
d) Regulation of uses and activities.
Also carry out actions to control runoff and transport of contaminated sediments at the basin level:
- Through the construction of water retention structures located in the lower areas.
- Sediment retention in the middle or middle-upper channels of the boulevards, with transverse dikes at the headwaters to laminate the avenue flows.
Objectives to save the Mar Menor
- Good environmental status to be able to be used again in a sustainable and long-lasting way.
- Preserve and recover the biological, environmental, landscape, cultural, and socioeconomic wealth.
- Promote comprehensive management of the Mar Menor with a multiple and integrated approach, aimed at conserving the ecosystem and ensuring the environmental viability of the activities carried out in it.
- Guarantee the sustainability of the uses for public or private uses, whether urban, residential, agricultural, livestock, fishing, industrial, port, recreational or of any other type, that are developed in the Mar Menor and its hydrographic basin
- Prevent and reverse the contamination of surface, underground and coastal inland waters, and soils, that may affect the Mar Menor.
- Promote research and monitoring of the Mar Menor and its watershed.
- Promote environmental education programs that favor the conservation of the Mar Menor.
- Conserve and restore the Mar Menor wetland network.
- Facilitate social participation in any activity, public or private, whose purpose is the preservation or restoration of the ecological balance or the environmental protection of the Mar Menor and its surroundings, in the terms established in this law and other provisions that result applicable.
- Simplify administrative procedures that affect the authorization of activities and projects.
- Promote economic development and improve the quality of life of the riverside population.
- Differentiate, promote and value the products and services offered by the Mar Menor.
- Recognize and recover the tangible and intangible cultural heritage linked to the Mar Menor, particularly the local practices and knowledge associated with the proper use of the natural resources of the Mar Menor.
- Fight against climate change, and soil erosion and desertification in the surroundings of the Mar Menor.
Additional Measures Applicable to Farms located in Zone 1
Types of crops allowed in Zone 1.
The crops allowed in zones 1 and 2 that are favorable to save the Mar Menor:
Only sustainable and precision agriculture is allowed in Zone 1.
For the purposes of this law, sustainable agriculture and precision agriculture are those that comply with the requirements imposed in sections 1 and 2 of this chapter.
Information regarding the actual volume of water supplied and monitoring of its application to irrigation
According to article 32 of the Law of recovery and recovery of the minor sea:
- Irrigated agricultural holdings must have devices for measuring the volume of irrigation water applied by sector , and monitoring by sensors the content and / or matrix potential of the water in the soil (availability of water for cultivation).
- Likewise, they must have sensor monitoring systems , control and monitoring of mineral fertilization carried out through irrigation and for the measurement of nitrogen and phosphorus.
- The new Action Program to save the Mar Menor, prepared by order of the competent council, for the control of nitrate pollution, must be approved within three months from the entry into force of this law. The requirements and characteristics of the monitoring systems will be established. These may be made more flexible for farms that are more than 1,500 meters from the shore of the Mar Menor and have a surface area of less than 10 hectares.
Sustainable and precision agriculture in these regions of Murcia
Sustainable and precision agriculture is understood as agriculture that uses the minimum of nutrients and is capable of synchronizing their availability with their absorption by crops.
Sustainable and precision agriculture improves the microbiology of the soil and minimizes the risks of leaching (extraction of soluble matter from a mixture through the action of a liquid solvent) of nutrients and emission of greenhouse gases.
Article 50. Types of crops allowed in Zone 1.
In Zone 1 it is only allowed:
- Agricultural activity involving rainfed crops.
- Sustainable and precision agriculture.
- Confined surface culture systems with nutrient recirculation or sustainable agriculture, and precision.
The Law establishes the requirements that sustainable and precision agriculture entails, to adjust the contribution of water and fertilizer to which the plant demands at all times, and which in fact is already practiced in many of the plots in this area, which have highly technical agricultural production systems and Plantae sensors .
Additional limitations related to irrigation to save the Mar Menor.
Article 53.
- The installation of humidity sensors, tensiometers or any other device will be mandatory.
- Systematic use in irrigation scheduling to support efficient water management throughout the soil profile affected by irrigation . Irrigated farms with a surface area of less than 0.5 ha are excepted.
- It is forbidden to use drippers, in horticultural crops, with unit flow rates greater than 2.2 L / h.
- The following constitute serious administrative offenses, due to non-compliance with the agricultural measures required in Zone 1 and 2:
- Do not install devices for efficient irrigation management in Zone 1.
- They constitute very serious administrative offenses, due to non-compliance with the agricultural measures required in Zone 1 and 2:
a) Conducts classified as serious when there has been serious damage or deterioration to the environment or the safety or health of people has been seriously endangered.
b) The commission of a second serious offense of the same nature within a period of two years.
Transitory dispositions
Mandatory application of the Code of Good Agricultural Practices of the Region of Murcia on a temporary basis to save the Mar Menor.
In Zones 1 and 2, compliance with the Code of Good Agricultural Practices of the Region of Murcia will be mandatory to save the Mar Menor.
Final provisions
Start of the processing of new action programs on areas vulnerable to contamination by nitrates of agricultural origin.
Within a period of two months from the entry into force of this law, the processing of the new action programs of the areas vulnerable to contamination by nitrates of agricultural origin in the Region of Murcia must begin; and, in particular, of the specific action program for the Area.
Vulnerable to nitrate contamination in Campo de Cartagena.
Regulatory order of agri-environmental operators.
The order establishing the applicable regime, the scope of action and responsibility, the required qualification and the minimum training of agri-environmental operators, must be published before December 31, 2020.
Sources consulted:
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