translated from Spanish: How water scarcity would be affecting our country’s agriculture

The UN estimates that by 2025, 1.8 billion people will live in countries or regions with absolute water shortages. Under the current context of climate change, it is projected that by 2030, nearly half of the world’s population will live in areas of water stress. In this context, Chile is a country whose development is limited mainly by the droughts that have occurred in recent years and the shortage of fresh water being among those with water stress.
The forestry sector of our country has a clear export orientation, taking fruit and forestry sites of preponderant places. At the geographical level, it can be divided into large productive areas with clear orientations. This is how in the Nor-Central area (Region III and IV), the production of fruit trees and vines dependent on irrigation predominates throughout the year; in the Central area (Region V and VI, and the Metropolitan Region) the production of vegetables is added, also heavily dependent on irrigation. From Region VII to Region IX, the production of annual crops, livestock and forestry, dependent on irrigation especially in the spring and summer season, begins to be made.
Thus, it can be said that Chile still bases its economic growth on the exploitation of natural resources and water is a fundamental element for sectors such as agriculture. Current climate models project a substantial decrease in rainfall in central Chile, spreading to the south of the region, increasing water scarcity.
Emergency zones
Currently the Metropolitan Region, Coquimbo, Valparaiso and O’Higgins have already been decreed as agricultural emergency areas due to water shortages. An example of the most affected localities in our country is Petorca or Putaendo where this year they have already lost 5 thousand animals. This situation affects the production of food, fruits, vegetables and meats. At the same time, with fewer staple foods available, they increase their prices affecting the entire population.
This scenario, however, seems to be spreading throughout the rest of the country. The government would be evaluating the Maule’s agricultural emergency zone because the mega drought would already cover more than 900 kilometres.
“We have an emergency in four regions of the country. Today we received the request from El Maule to decree an agricultural emergency area. We have a tremendous challenge, we want agriculture to continue to grow and for that we have to solve the main bottleneck that is the availability of water,” said Agriculture Minister Antonio Walker.
Improved water use in both dryland and irrigated agriculture is essential to address the expected situations of scarcity. The improvement in water utilization or productivity is understood in terms of obtaining as many crops as possible per volume of water.
Chile is drying up quickly, at the same time that water consumption increases every year. On the other hand, perhaps this resource is not being properly managed as we do not know precisely how much we are consuming. In this sense, one possible solution is that there are meters audited by the Directorate General of Water (DGA) to know exactly who is consuming and how much.
It is essential to know our basins hydrologically and to know how they behave in the face of the changes in the climate that we are facing. This is also necessary so that in land use we can ensure sustainable water use in the territory. Seeking greater efficiency and not losing water through reuse is one of the mechanisms that could contribute.

Original source in Spanish

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