Amid climate crisis, Bahia relaxes irrigation regulations

The government of Bahia should publish, in the coming days, in the midst of the climate crisis, an ordinance that relaxes the rules for capturing water for irrigation of agricultural areas in the west of the state.

The announcement was made by Governor Rui Costa (PT), during a visit to the Bahia Farm Show, one of the main agribusiness fairs in Brazil, held between June 1st and 4th in the municipality of Luís Eduardo Magalhães.

Sought, the government of Bahia did not comment on the criticism of environmentalists.

The changes in the volume of water abstraction and the distance between artesian wells are based on a scientific study carried out by universities in Brazil and the USA, for almost five years, at a cost of R$ 5 million, financed by the farmers.

It will be allowed, for example, to open artesian wells to capture water for irrigation at a shorter distance from each other. Current standards authorize a minimum distance of 2,500 meters, and now this distance can reach 1,000 meters, provided that it is supported by technical projects.

Some wells reach a depth of 300 meters, with a flow rate of 500,000 liters of water per hour. Others, 80 meters long, have a flow rate of 10 to 15 thousand liters/hour.

There will also be changes in the grants for abstraction, whose volumes will vary according to the time of year or the availability of surface water (river volume) and groundwater.

Irrigation in the west of the state is made in part with water from the Urucuia aquifer, which has groundwater in an extension of 125,000 km.^two, between Maranhão, Piauí, Bahia, Minas Gerais and Goiás. The other part of the catchment is from the Grande and Corrente rivers, tributaries of the São Francisco River.

At the opening of the Bahia Farm Show, Governor Rui Costa said he was sure of his decision. “Based on these studies, we are going to establish new parameters, making the use of water more flexible and expanding,” stated Costa.

“Many times, it has been proven, to make the rule for the use of water, you tied, excessively, the conditions of the same volume of water. It has been proven that some level of flexibility can be done, without harming the environment and the replacement of the water source in the region”, said the governor.

According to Aiba (Association of Agriculturists and Irrigators of Bahia), most producers of soy, corn and cotton, the flexibilization of the rules will allow to expand the irrigated area by another 500 thousand hectares, but this still depends on the increase in energy supply.

The west of Bahia currently has 2.3 million hectares of planted area, 200,000 of which are irrigated, where it is possible to harvest up to three crops a year, unlike rainfed areas, which only harvest the first crop well.

7.07 million tons of soybeans (3.5% more than the previous crop), 2.05 million tons of corn (11.8% more) and 1. 3 million tons of cotton (10% increase), according to data from Aiba and other organizations representing western farmers.

Other crops, such as bananas, watermelon, coffee, cocoa, wheat, beans and sorghum, amount to 236,500 tons, which amounts to more than 10.7 million tons of agricultural products grown in the region.

Odacil Ranzi, president of Aiba, says that the changes will be beneficial for both small and large producers to implement or expand the irrigation system and produce more.

“This study proved that water can still be withdrawn for a long time, and that a good part of it can be returned by the rains. For this, we are investing in reforestation projects and sustainable management that favor a longer permanence of water in the soil” , said the manager. “With that, the water, over time, goes to the water table and supplies the aquifer.”

According to Embrapa Cerrados researcher, Lineu Neiva Rodrigues, it is possible to maintain the capture of water from the Urucuia aquifer, but it is also necessary to observe the recharge areas, which are around the springs.

“Through them, rainwater will flow to the springs and supply the aquifer,” said the researcher, according to which rainfall levels in the region, despite having been low for a few years, have been very unstable.

“The volume of rain in western Bahia varies a lot from region to region. Depending on the location of the research, we will have high volumes or low volumes”, said the researcher. In a lecture at the agricultural fair, he presented rainfall data between 1980 and 2011, with an average variation of 50 mm to 350 mm of rain per year.

Among rural producers, the expectation is to reduce bureaucracy to obtain grants to open more artesian wells. Cattle rancher Antônio Rodrigues Porto, 77, owner of 2,000 head of cattle that are on his farm in the city of Wanderley, wants to have more security to feed his cattle.

“I have eight wells, from about 80 to 100 meters, each with about 10,000 liters of flow per day. But if I can expand it, it’s good for me, because I can use water to improve the quality of the pasture, which at the time of drought doesn’t yield much. So, if you can irrigate the pasture, it’s better. Currently, it’s only irrigated with rainwater,” he said.

Farmer Celestino Zanella, one of the creators of the technical feasibility study for the use of water resources in the western region of Bahia, said that easing the rules will reduce problems between neighboring farms.

“There are cases of farmers who no longer have irrigation because the well is too close to the neighbor. We don’t want that, but that everyone can benefit from irrigation”, declared Zanela, who is the former president of Aiba and a soy producer, corn, cotton and beans on a 7,000 hectare farm in São Desidério.

Aiba informed that the expansion of irrigation in the west of Bahia will be accompanied by the launch of Sima (Integrated Agricultural Monitoring System), scheduled for August this year.

Presented during the Bahia Farm Show, SIMA uses advanced technologies to collect daily data on rainfall, soil moisture, water use for irrigation and the level of the Urucuia aquifer. Access to data should be made available to the general public, separated by municipality.

For rural producers, a carbon credit calculator will also be made available at SIMA, so that it is possible to balance carbon sequestration in soybean crops, a crop initially tested by the tool in the region.

Experts warn of water shortage in rivers

Changes to the rules are subject to criticism by experts. For geographer Valvey Dias Rigonato, from the Department of Geography at Ufob (Federal University of Western Bahia), the measure “is a disaster announced with the approval of the government of Bahia”.

“At least 500 families, from eight communities, just in the area that I have carried out research for more than ten years, are experiencing serious problems of lack of water and the one they have is of low quality, whether for human or animal consumption”, said Rigonato.

In the professor’s opinion, the state is more concerned with “environmental and political marketing” than with building an environmental management that can minimize environmental disorder.

Agrometeorologist Marcos Heil Costa, in turn, warns that the region has been experiencing a reduction in river flows and has shown a 12% drop in rainfall since the 1980s, due to climate change, and there is a forecast of scarcity of rain for the next years.

Not only the west of Bahia, but the entire Northeast and part of Tocantins are being affected by the scarcity of rains, in the opinion of Costa, who is an agricultural engineer and a doctor in Atmospheric Sciences from the UFV (Federal University of Viçosa), in Minas Gerais. .

“It is necessary to be very careful with the use of water in irrigation. As long as it is done in a rational way, irrigation can be a great option for an agriculture that is more resilient to climate change”, he said.

Journalist Mário Bittencourt traveled to Luís Eduardo Magalhães at the invitation of the Bahia Farm Show