In any case, relatively inefficient flooding techniques are still widespread in international comparison (OECD, 2010a). In the short term, subsidies for irrigation modernisation could be conditioned on reductions in the amount of water designated in concessions, to ensure water savings resulting from the modernisation can be made available to environmental or other economic use. The abundant use of irrigation water for crops characterised by low value added and the resulting low productivity of irrigated water is somewhat more marked in those river basins in which water scarcity is less of an issue. However, some of the basins facing the severest scarcity also exhibit substantial water consumption to irrigate low-productivity crops.10 In the river basins of Segura, Ebro, Jitcar, and Guadalquivir more than a third of irrigated water generates a net operating surplus worth less than 20 cents per cubic meter.