This was outlined by the coordinator of the Interministerial Executive Commission for Irrigation Affairs, Tabare Aguerre, at a press conference.

The former head of the Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture, and Fisheries (MGAP) said that the government’s goal is to develop a development strategy and a state policy on the issue at the “highest level.”

The irrigation strategy was one of the campaign promises of current President Yamandu Orsi, who led a meeting of the interministerial commission a few days ago.

The MGAP, the ministers of the Environment and Industry and Energy, and the National Development Corporation are involved in the matter.

Aguerre pointed out that “in Uruguay, rainfall is very unevenly distributed” and remembered that irrigation of rainfed crops was implemented just over a decade ago “for reasons of competitiveness, adaptation to climate change, and improved productivity.”

“Of the water that falls as rain, 35 percent runs off, and of that 35 percent, only five percent is used. If we could simply intercept two percent more, we could generate irrigation for 300,000 hectares,” he told the press.

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