Scientific cooperation between the universities of Cordoba and Cranfield, in England, has allowed for the development of a strategic plan for associations of irrigation water users in southeast England. Directed by Cranfield professor Jerry W. Knox, and in collaboration with researchers Keith Weatherhead and Melvin Kay, the researcher Juan Antonio Rodríguez, from the ‘Ramón y Cajal’ programme in the agronomy department, has participated in the study of irrigational necessities and the design of a plan for improving and maximising irrigation efficiency in the east of England, whose report was published in the Journal of Horticultural Science and Biotechnology.
The project, studying the efficient use of irrigation water developed by scientists from Britain and Cordoba, and financed by the East of England development Agency, looks to optimise the systems used by British farmers in the more than 150,000 hectares of irrigated land that exist in the country and are concentrated in the eastern area of the island. In the preliminary studies to the development of a strategic plan for irrigators, Rodríguez employed knowledge developed during years by the ‘Hydraulics and Irrigation’ research group at the University of Cordoba, now involved in the study of new energy optimisation techniques in irrigation. As a result, the scientists could offer British farmers a comprehensive plan in which they detail how and when to irrigate each crop to achieve maximum efficiency, and therefore contribute to environmental sustainability by reducing water consumption. Likewise, the plan has offered irrigators an action plan to organise themselves in a similar way to Spanish irrigation communities, so that in this way, they achieve a common voice in negotiations with the government or can apply techniques for commercial cooperation.