Antonio de Espejo
In February 1583, Espejo arrived at the territory of the Piros, the most southerly of the Pueblo villagers. From there the Spanish continued up the Rio Grande. Espejo described the Pueblo villages as "clean and tidy". The houses were multi-storied and made of adode bricks. "They make very fine tortillas," Espejo commented, and the Pueblos also served the Spanish turkeys, beans, corns, and pumpkins. The people "did not seem to be bellicose". The southernmost Pueblos had only clubs for weapons plus a few "poor Turkish bows and poorer arrows". Further north, the Indians were better armed and more aggressive. Some of the Pueblo towns were large, Espejo described Zia as having 1,000 houses and 4,000 men and boys. In their farming, the Pueblos used irrigation "with canals and dams, built as if by Spaniards". The only Spanish influence that Espejo noted among the Pueblos was their desire for iron. They would steal any iron article they could find.
Water resources management in Uruguay
The World Bank has contributed with Uruguay government in several projects related to water resources management. In the context of the Natural Resources Management and Irrigation Development Project a soil and water management strategy was formulated and implemented to increase, diversify and maintain agricultural production and exports of individual farmers. As a result of the project, over 2,400 farmers made investments to increase by almost 20% the irrigated areas in the country (from 35,000 hectares to a total of 190,000 hectares), where land devoted to irrigated rice crops accounted for almost 77% of the total. Despite the fact that irrigated rice fields still maintain a relatively high importance, the Project decisively supported diversification. The expansion of irrigated rice fields (19,000 hectares) financed by the project was almost fully related to the expansion of cattle breeding systems, a process by which the irrigated rice and forage crops were integrated to the use of the soil in rotation with pastures. In addition, the expansion of irrigated areas for the production of fruits and vegetables supported by the project (16,000 hectares) represented an increase of over 100% regarding the initial area where these products were grown which contributed to a considerable growth in the production of high-value crops and non-traditional exports.