URSA – Units Recirculation By-products Alqueva

The Alqueva irrigation project (150 000 ha) faced a very low percentage of soil’s organic matter which affects negatively its environmental and agronomical capacity of being self-sustainable. The URSA project intends to create a set of organic recovery units through this territory where farmers deliver their by-products of the agricultural, livestock and agro-industrial activities. Each by-product delivered results in a direct exchange per compost for use on their lands, reducing the application of mineral fertilizers, and thus improving soil structure, fertility, carbon sequestration and productivity, also reducing the quantity of nutrients and water lost by leaching, improving the quality of the downstream water reservoirs that represent the origin of the irrigation water provided to farmers, with lower treatment costs. 

In result, the promotion of the circular economy is achieved at the nutrient level by the stabilized re-entry of agricultural, livestock and food agroindustry by-products into the production chain, avoiding the importation of production factors and associated environmental costs, and the circular economy of carbon and water through the recovery of the byproducts elements, as well as the increase of water efficiency and quality within the Enterprise with a significant reduction in the energy costs of treatment and longer environmental availability.