Irrigation consultancy

Irrigation recommendations

It is a service provided by the Department of Soil and Irrigation, belonging to the ICIA. The aim of the Department is to help farmers to get a rational and efficient management of their production means. The Department supplies appropriate cientific and technical support in order to optimize the use of water, a basic resource for life. By doing so, agriculture becomes a sustainable activity, compatible with the environment. General public is informated in a clear, simple and fast way.

The main goal of this Department is to promote and facilitate the transference of information generated by research and by technological innovations performed for the Agrarian sector. In this manner, the Department tries to reach an efficient management for the production factors in the Canarian Region, dedicating special attention to water and fertilizers.

The Department establishes the consumption levels for crops and zones and then supplies a weekly irrigation recommendation to farmers, who are always informed about the quantity of water they have to use for a given crop. To do so, the Department uses the network of climatic stations belonging to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, under the protection of the Common initiative INTERREG II-C, in collaboration with the ICIA and different Insular Palaces.

Aims

Rationalize the use of water in order to:

• Promote saving and give a better use to these factors.

• Facilitate a cost-reduction of the crops, in order to incrementate the gross profit of the exploitations.

• Promote a conservationist and environmentally friendly management.

The services offered by the Department are mainly foccused to the following users:

• Farmers

• Communities of irrigators

• Agriculture associations.

• Agriculture companies

• Public Administrations

Crops that this Department advices about:

The Department advices about the most important crops for every zone of intervention, paying special attention to banana, tomato and wineyards besides other tropical and subtropical species. Additionally, the Department advices about horticultural crops as melon, carrot, onion, or pepper, and other crops as protea, Aloe vera, olive tree or fog tree. The department is also interested in the development of protected crops (greenhouses).