The regional Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, is taking measures to protect the famous Calasparra rice from an invasory species of snail which has already colonized the Delta of the Ebro.
The snail, known as the Apple Snail, acesses the paddy fields through the irrigation and drainage systems.
Special controls have been put in place in Calasparra and some 400 hectares, including, 200 hectares of canals and channels have been cleaned, as has all the machinery used for harvesting.
The plague can be detected by the eggs which are a distinctive pink colour, and the large size of the snail.
There has also been an information campaign aimed at rice farmers who could lose their harvests. The plague could also cause an environmental disaster in emblematic areas, according to official sources.
