Water scarcity is a problem that increasingly affects arid areas around the world. To tackle this challenge, strategies are being carried out to combat this issue. One of the highlights is the desalination of seawater, whose main value is that it is an unlimited resource.

Desalinated water is becoming a real alternative to the need to get water suitable for irrigation of crops. Its easy availability (added to the shortage of water), has led several countries to study and apply techniques in crops with this type of water.

One of the reference techniques for water desalination is Reverse Osmosis, because the production costs are not excessively high compared to other procedures. This means that more and more people are betting on this irrigation model in the face of the great water crisis in areas such as the southeast of Spain.

To meet the objectives of the project, aspects such as water saving will be addressed, implementing closed systems of irrigation without soil that allow to reduce water consumption up to 20%. In this sense, DESEACROP will also bet on an improvement of the drainages, thus being able to use the water already used in crops. In addition, and using the desalinated water, DESEACROP will try to improve the yield of the crops.

The Life DESEACROP project, in short, will study and analyze the current situation of desalination for irrigation in Spain and will check the productivity and quality of the crops, examining values such as energy consumption, gas emissions and the costs of all the process.