The research programme of CEBAS Irrigation Group for the next few years will take advantage of the background of our group which is based on a high scientific level in agriculture (horticulture and plant sciences) and food science in a strategic location in the south east of Spain. In this area, high quality fruits and vegetables are produced in very difficult environmental conditions with scarce resources, to produce ground breaking research at the frontier of science with an applied perspective and high impact in the production sector.

The CEBAS Irrigation Group will accelerate uptake of innovative agricultural water management in line with the objectives of the Water Framework Directive and the EU Blueprint, promoting the EU green economy while preserving and increasing the employment in agriculture and related sectors. Innovate irrigated agriculture necessarily involves many disciplines, from crop physiology to information technologies and social science.

Our challenge is to integrate all these disciplines in the future work plan of the group, where the innovative agricultural water management under drought will be addressed as a core priority, complemented by fostering uptake of water reuse and achieving energy savings in irrigation as secondary priorities. The relevance of this research will be high as in agricultural production in arid environments water is the main limiting resource.

Operational Goals

1. Determining new deficit irrigation strategies to mitigate the effects of water shortages maintaining plant and yield quality even when low quality irrigation water is used;
2. Reinforcing research and development in irrigation programming through the use of indicators based on soil and plant water status and salinity status;
3. Studying the use of non-conventional water resources (reclaimed, desalinated, saline waters) for agricultural and landscape irrigation;
4. Developing agronomic techniques (mycorrhizae, bacteria, canopy management and orchard/vineyard design) and bio-technological models to optimize water and nutrient use efficiency;
5. Advancing our knowledge of water relations and the eco-physiological behaviour of species deemed to be of special socio-economic interest (citrus, fruit, horticulture and landscape plants);
6. Promoting interactive and interdisciplinary research, with an environment-agronomy-food-consumer approach;
7. Increasing our percentage of articles in Q1, enforcing our basic research lines related to plant physiology, biochemistry and biotechnology;
8. Increasing our international leadership by the active participation in research networks and professional platforms, and our innovation capacities by the development of new patents and licences with commercial interest.

Main Innovation Products

The main contribution of this equipment will be to produce a practical marketable solution for decision-making regarding precision irrigation. The development and marketing of a final integrated and cost-effective solution to use reclaimed water through an innovative technology that reclaims minerals and water for irrigation, allowing water recycling, complying with food safety and hygiene protocols and water legislation, saving process energy consumption and avoiding ground water pollution.

Also, the development and marketing of an online professional irrigation scheduling system based on integrated analysis of soil and plant water-status indicators and weather variables. This prototype will be formulated to progressively guide its visitors and sway them toward adopting water conservation practices and technologies following a win-win approach.