Imago Garage

Rua do Vale de Santo António 50A, 1170-381 Lisboa

27 . 09 . 2024 → 26 . 10 . 2024

wednesday - saturday → 02:30 pm – 06:30 pm

Artist

José Artur Macedo

Water, Agriculture and Society

The Mediterranean climate of the southern regions of Portugal is characterized by the concentration of rainfall in the cold season, with prolonged dry spells in the warm season. This means that humidity and heat, two essential conditions for plant growth, do not occur together. Water scarcity has long been considered the reason behind the underdevelopment of agriculture in Alentejo, since at least the 17th century. However, it was only in 1884 that a large agricultural hydraulic project - the Sorraia Valley Hydro agricultural System – was planned, as part of a large public hydraulic works plan for the region. It was frequently argued that the increase in agricultural productivity would result in an increase in population density, in an area that has always been sparsely populated. With a manoeuvre of social engineering, via the division of agricultural land, a middle class of small property owners would emerge from a population of day labourers and other unskilled farm workers, many of them migrants from the coastal areas north of the country, thereby slowing the historical emigration of Minho people to the Americas.

These ideas were only put into practice in the mid-20th century, with the construction of a system of dams and irrigation canals, and the creation of the Internal Colonization Board. In the end, the Internal Colonization Board did not achieve much, having created only one colony south of the Tagus, but the dams and irrigation canals were built. The Montargil dam, finalised in 1958, effected profound changes in almost every aspect of the landscape. The region now features an artificial lake approximately 20 km long, while water-intensive crops have taken over the fields – rice, corn, tomatoes and, more recently, olive groves and vineyards, amongst others – replacing traditional rain-fed crops, such as wheat. From an economic standpoint, this and other similar hydraulic works led Alentejo to become the country’s main agricultural producer. On the other hand, in the long-term, over-exploitation of soil and water resources is a risk to both the agricultural sector and the regional ecosystem.
“ Carlos Faísca