Good practice:

Rising awareness about the traditional irrigation system in the Vega Baja region

The lower basin of the river Segura, called Vega Baja region, has an arid Mediterranean climate, dry and with shortage of water resources, although suffers notorious flood events. The area is a relict wetland, characterized by shortage of slope and shallow ground water table.
Almoradí is a mid-sized town of around 20,000 inhabitants located in the heart of Vega Baja, that has suffered its latter flood in September 2019. It was an extremely harmful event that led the town without electric and water supply for days and that even took two human lives.
The most important heritage in relation to water in this region is the traditional irrigation system, an ingenious, complex and labyrinthine build, designed in order to irrigate with a continuous reuse of water.
The creation of the brand Vega Baja Artichoke (Alcachofa Vega Baja) has been a game changer for the area, favouring economic development, and rising awareness of the values of irrigation for the area. The practice reaches its objectives with a set of concrete actions:
- Creation of an association to promote the brand. The annual membership fee is 500 €.
- Collaboration of public and private stakeholders.
- Marketing investment to give visibility to the brand: web page, social media, recipe books (paper and online), ambassadors of the product (usually “mediatic” chefs), etc.
- Annual exhibition that gathers over 20,000 people at Almoradí.
- Educational tours for students.

• Human resources
• Financial resources
• Marketing actions
• Webpage
• Campaigns and events
• Technical workers team
• Maintenance of a visitor centre

The most evident results of the practice are obviously related to the production of the artichoke and its elaborated products. The branding strategy has achieved that:
• The Vega Baja region is one on the most important producers of Spain, their artichokes are known by their quality and lead the sales abroad.
• The cultivated surface in Vega Baja is over 2,000 ha that produce 25.000 tons per year.
• This area is responsible for over the 50% of the national sales abroad.

The main challenge has been to redeploy an economic sector that was depressed and around which there was a feeling that it was something of the past.
Now the challenge for the future is to attract more private investment and to create new opportunities related to gastronomy (tourism, education...)

The transferable aspect of this practice is that other regions in Europe should discover and understand the traditional water management solutions as a vector for cultural/economic opportunities and for the sustainable land use.
Potential for learning from this practice is high, as long as it includes a wide range of elements and stakeholders usually present in water resources management in agricultural areas with water-linked heritage.
Of course, the experience with product itself (artichoke) would not be transferrable to other locations and climates. But the idea of strongly branding traditional products and marketing them according to new tendencies and fashions is clearly transferrable.
Some activities are growing around the valorisation strategy. For example, currently there are visits for scholars where they discover traditional agricultural practices and the artichoke as a healthy product that, in a workshop, they are allowed to manipulate, cook and eat.