43 attendees were those who logged on to the Zoom platform on December 12 to participate in the last 2024 Online Seminar, organized by the Ethical Trade Forums. On this occasion, the topic was “Best practices for water management in red fruit crops”.
To begin the seminar, the topic was addressed through the participation of two experts; Alex Fernandez (General Manager Spain at WRAP – Good Stuff International) and Cristina Arribas (Program Officer at SIFAV), who shared the presentation “Water custody in southern Spain: design of collective actions”.
We were then joined by Pedro Gavilán Zafra (Senior Researcher at the Institute for Research and Training in Agriculture, Fisheries, Food and Ecological Production IFAPA, Junta de Andalucía), who gave a presentation on the role of IFAPA in the sustainability of irrigation in the Doñana National Park environment.
Sébastien Guery (Gabinete de Iniciativas Europeas – GIESA) and Maria Vallet (SVZ) then presented the best practice entitled “Autonomous irrigation on demand in the Huelva strawberry crop: the value chain is committed to sustainability”, an interesting project for efficient water use that is being implemented by the SVZ/INNOCENT companies.
Finally, Leopoldo Lissen (Agronomist Engineer at SAT Algaida Productores) gave a presentation on “Good water management practices that we practice in the cultivation of red fruits”.
This online seminar was developed in collaboration with the collective action project promoted by WRAP. The collective action initiative for water in Spain, promoted by the British organization WRAP, in collaboration with the Dutch organization IDH-SIFAV, is supported by 24 British and European companies in the food sector, and focuses on the interest of European markets in promoting sustainable water management in priority food production areas for international supply chains. The long-term objective is to contribute to improving the health and resilience of watersheds, water contexts and associated ecosystems in these areas.
One of the project’s priority action areas is the Doñana-Huelva area, where a work plan has been developed considering the context and interests of producers, value chains, local stakeholders and working in accordance with public policies on sustainability. One of the lines of work is the promotion and dissemination of good agricultural practices, as one of the means to contribute to the objective pursued by this initiative, and therefore seeks to promote the exchange of knowledge on issues such as sustainable water management on farms.
We are grateful to the speakers and to the participants for joining us in this last online seminar of the year. We invite them to continue participating in the interesting topics we have prepared for 2025.