The first fruit producers of the Urgell canal have started to irrigate their farms, after last Monday July 3 the Assembly of Irrigators agreed to allocate the extra allocation of 50 cubic hectometres approved by the Hydrographic Confederation of the Ebro (CHE) to save the fruit harvest and sacrifice the forage and cereals.
One of the first to irrigate was Albert Capdevila, who in the morning had already raised the irrigation shovel on an apple orchard that he owns in Puiggròs (Garrigas). Like so many other farmers, he thought that this summer he would no longer irrigate and he admits that he feels “lightened up”. He is confident that he will save between 80 and 90% of the harvest, even though he warns that the size of the fruit will be smaller than normal because the water has arrived late.
The General Community of Regants of the Canals d'Urgell foresees that with the extra reserves of 50 cubic hectometres of the Rialb-Oliana system, fruit producers can carry out up to four irrigation shifts during the summer, which will be added to the survival irrigation that they already did in mid June.
This water must allow saving the harvest of the 9,300 hectares of orchards that the canal supplies. It is a harvest that until a few days ago most farmers almost considered lost. "They already had the idea that they would not irrigate and now it has suddenly caught us a bit," explains farmer Albert Capdevila.
Despite the drought in recent months, Capdevila has applied the same treatments as each year to the fruit bowls. The only difference that this year has been made by severe thinning so that the trees did not have so much fruit load and could survive with less water.
Capdevila is confident that it will save the majority of the production of a fruit that will taste good, but will have a smaller size than usual due to lack of water during the months of April and May.
It takes the farmer between 5 and 7 hours to irrigate the 3 hectares of apples on this farm in Puiggròs where there are Golden and Gala varieties. These irrigations will be repeated every two weeks until the start of the fruit harvest, scheduled for the end of July.
