Technicians from the Department of Agriculture and Water have met with the farmers who produce Calasparra rice and representatives of the cooperatives and wholesalers to warn them of about a plague of “apple snails.”
This snail, catagorized as an “invader,” is a grave problema for agriculture and the environment due to its reproductive capacity (it can lay up to 800 eggs at once) and its double respiratory system and branchial which gives it an unique ability to adapt.
The plague, which has come from Asia and Amercia, has colonized in the paddy fields in the Ebro Delta. It was first detected in 2009 and in five years it has extended over a large area.
The Water Board has been asked to help out by taking samples of the rivers in order to detect clusters of the snail´s deep rose coloured eggs and the farmers have been advised to take preventative measures.
