Ecologically questionable: These wine regions are still run by flood irrigation

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Like humans, vines depend on water for their survival. It is assumed that approximately 500 millimeters more precipitation is required throughout the year in colder climatic regions and approximately 750 millimeters more in warmer regions. Increasing drought and rising temperatures are increasingly focusing on the type of irrigation used on the vines.

While drip irrigation has proven itself to be an effective and ecologically sensible form of irrigation, some areas still operate with older methods such as flood irrigation. It has been around for centuries and has some advantages as well as disadvantages such as waste of resources.

Irrigation in viticulture

With this method, the entire vineyard is filled with water previously held by weirs. This type of irrigation is used only in areas with sufficient water availability and manpower available, as this method requires a lot of water, so the weirs have to be operated manually. But because of gravity, flood irrigation only works in flat vineyards, because otherwise the water will run off as well.

Basically, this type of irrigation is relatively inexpensive as it requires only small investments in infrastructure. No electricity is required, as the water self-distributes in the vineyard. Flood irrigation also helps prevent soil salinity levels from getting too high by removing excess salts from the soil. This is important because too much salt in the soil makes it harder for the roots to absorb water.

Typically, vineyards are flooded up to six times during the growing season. The problem: While some of the water cannot be absorbed by the vines, some simply evaporates. This waste of water is a problem, especially in areas with water scarcity or limited water resources.

Climate change requires rethinking

Wine regions where flood irrigation is still practiced today include Chile (Central Valley), Argentina (Mendoza) and Australia (Riverina). As a rule, wines produced with it are in the lowest price segment. But even in these countries, the question of judicious use of water comes up more and more.

Therefore, wineries must increasingly consider alternative irrigation methods in order to strive for sustainable wine production as much as possible, taking into account ecological aspects and adapting to climate change. In the end, this important question is also settled on the wine rack held by consumers.

Source : Blick