Cordoba, (EFE) many farms in Andalusia, so the sector demands solutions and a deep reflection on the production model.
Despite the great problems of “costs”, the current situation of drought is “the most serious and most important thing for the sector”, as explained to EFE, the spokesman for Asaja Andalucía, Eduardo Martín, who warns that it is forming the “total storm” to “give the finishing touch to the agricultural sector.”
A lack of rain and drought that “is not new” and that “far from disappearing, it persists” and “exacerbates the situation much more” compared to last year, for which reason the farms go through a “very complex and very hard”.
It is the same feeling expressed by the secretary general of the Union of Small Farmers and Ranchers (UPA) of Andalusia, Cristóbal Cano, who stresses to EFE that the situation is “very complicated” since this first quarter of the year “it has not rained at all ”, practically “much less than what was expected or what was desired”.
A “generalized” situation throughout Andalusia and that affects all crops “in the same way” although emergencies depend on the type of plantation.
Critical and dry irrigation on the way to ruin
Eduardo Martín assures that all the crops that depend on irrigation such as “rice, industrial tomatoes, cotton or corn” are in an “absolutely very complicated” situation and that “it cannot be solved with a little rain”, since They require a lot of rainfall “and continuously”.
Similarly, Cristóbal Cano states that there are crops “such as onion or garlic” that are in a “critical” situation and that need imminent water “in order to save the crops”, hence the request to the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation ( CHG) advance water allocations, something that for now the basin body is not considering.
A request that is going to be extended to the olive grove to “help it have a decent flowering”, since the prospects are that “in the medium term it will not rain either”, which added to the high temperatures causes the situation for the crop par excellence in Andalusia is “very worrying,” says Cano.
On the other hand, rainfed crops, fundamentally all winter cereals including “the range of wheat, barley or oats”, or even spring cereals “such as sunflowers”, are in an “absolutely critical” state. since “they are enduring” but it is already verified that “they are going to start to regress in a vertiginous way”, warns Martín.
“It is true that it had a good start because the rains came at the end of November and December which helped planting to go well, but since then there has been a lot of delay and we will see if they are not lost,” laments Cano.
Dramatic situation of drought throughout Andalusia
A situation that is totally similar to “extensive livestock farming”, since it will begin to “lose pasture” which leads the farmer to “buy feed and carry water”, which supposes a “brutal extra cost” for the farms that threaten their subsistence seriously, says Martín.
But it is that the entire grove such as “almond, citrus or fruit trees”, in addition to the named olive grove, “looks ugly”, since spring is the “fundamental time of breeding”, and when the tree “does not have enough moisture and nutrients” will draw on the “few reserves it has” and “will not be able to bear fruit,” says Martín.
“There are no better or worse areas, only worse and much worse ones”, assures the Asaja spokesman, who describes that the situation is “homogeneous” throughout Andalusia and if the western part “is severely affected”, the eastern one “almost even more ”, something that also occurs “in the entire peninsula”.
And although there are no “magic wands” nor can it be predicted when it will rain, many farmers and ranchers consider “reconversion” or even “stop farming”, although “profitability” is a determining factor when it comes to “planning”. crops, says Martín.
“You have to analyze things with perspective,” according to Cano, who recalls that many traditional crops have shifted towards woody ones, although he believes that the climate change situation “must be taken into account” and, therefore, it is necessary “reflect on the agricultural production model”, a debate that “has to be on the table” in the face of the “bath of reality” that the drought entails. EFE
