Laurence Dollimore
STRAWBERRY farmers saved 1.7 billion litres of water last year thanks to a new irrigation app.
Smoothie-making company Innocent began developing the app with farmers at Doñana National Park in Sevilla and the University of Cordoba six years ago.
Named Irri-fresa, the app calculates optimum daily irrigation times, and has cut water use by 40%.
Most of Spain’s €400 million strawberry industry is located at the world heritage sight, but it uses up half of the wetlands’ water.
The EU recently gave Spain an ultimatum to secure the park and its abundant wildlife’s water supply, threatening to take the case to the European Court of Justice.
