PRERIVID, an innovation project aimed at improving the prediction of vineyard water requirements to ensure sustainable irrigation practices.
The project will develop a precision irrigation tool to tackle climate change and improve the sector’s competitiveness.
With a grant of over half a million euros, 80% of which is co-financed by EAFRD funds, and a duration of four years, PRERIVID is being launched: a operational group that will provide innovative solutions for the wine sector by developing a precision irrigation tool that integrates data collected directly from the vineyard.
Spain ranks first in the world in terms of vineyard area, with 955,000 hectares, accounting for 28.9% of the total area in the European Union and 13% of the global total. The wine industry in Spain accounts for 2.2% of GDP, making it a sector of extraordinary importance. Climate change poses a major threat to the sector and presents numerous challenges. Shifting seasons, extreme weather events, rising temperatures and reduced rainfall are jeopardising vine production: they damage crops, alter the ripening dates of the grapes and, above all, limit water availability. Currently, two-thirds of Spain’s land area is at risk of desertification, with some cultivated land already experiencing problems, and some studies estimate a 20% reduction in current total annual rainfall by 2100.
The challenge of managing increasingly scarce water resources efficiently requires an accurate assessment of a vineyard’s water requirements. There are currently various tools available for irrigation scheduling, but they all have limitations: either they do not take into account all the relevant parameters for estimating water requirements, or they use ‘average’ data that does not reflect the actual situation of vineyards with irrigation needs.
It is against this backdrop that the PRERIVID project has emerged, bringing together winegrowers, agronomists and researchers. The aim of the project is to develop an irrigation management tool that integrates data measured at the ‘plot level’ — relating to the plant, the soil and meteorology — alongside global climate data and irrigation requirements throughout the year, as well as data on agricultural practices that impact water consumption. In this way, PRERIVID will contribute to creating a more sustainable viticulture and improve the sector’s competitiveness in a context of water scarcity, as it is expected to yield savings of between 15 and 20 per cent of water resources. Furthermore, PRERIVID will be implemented in autonomous communities with different climates—Galicia, the Valencian Community and Castile and León—meaning its results will be applicable to the entire wine-growing sector and even to other types of crops.
To carry out this initiative, a multidisciplinary team has been set up, coordinated by the Galician University-Business Foundation (FEUGA), with the following partners also taking part: the Quinta Couselo winery, Quinta Sardonia, Bodegas Enguera, the technology company Monet Tecnología e Innovación S.L., the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC), through the Projects and Planning Group of the Higher Polytechnic School of Engineering of Lugo, the Agricultural Technology Institute of Castile and León (ITACYL), through its viticulture group, the Centre for Research on Desertification (CIDE) (CSIC, the University of Valencia, and the Valencian Regional Government), through the Water and Crops Group, and the Institute of Vine and Wine Sciences (ICVV) (CSIC, the University of La Rioja, and the Government of La Rioja) through the MedWineQuality Group.
The innovation project will be carried out in several stages. In the first phase, equipment will be installed to measure meteorological data and soil moisture. This information, together with the weather forecast for the location of the experimental plot, will enable the estimation of each plot’s water requirements for the next 7 days, based on the location, grape variety, vineyard layout, soil type, irrigation system and time of year. Once the water requirements are known, the irrigation management tool will be fine-tuned.
In a second phase, the use of agricultural practices that help reduce water consumption in the vineyard will be evaluated, such as the application of kaolin and the use of ground cover. This will enable specific recommendations to be made regarding the timing and intensity of these activities. The use of digital techniques—NIR spectroscopy—will also be evaluated, enabling data on the vineyard’s health to be collected with minimal human resources.
Subsequently, the effect of irrigation treatments and agricultural practices on the quality of the must obtained will be analysed. To this end, physicochemical parameters and key compounds will be studied to determine the quality of the grapes and the wine. Finally, the economic impact of the irrigation management tool on the vineyard will be assessed, including expenditure on raw materials, labour and energy.
The PRERIVID project forms part of the Strategic Plan for the Common Agricultural Policy (PEPAC) 2023–2027, which is 80% funded by the European Union’s European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and 20% by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA). The Directorate General for Rural Development, Innovation and Agri-Food Training (DGDRIFA) is the authority responsible for the implementation of this aid. Total project budget: €589,371.54; Total grant: €583,385.01.
The PRERIVID Operational Group is the body responsible for this content.
