Drought reduces almond production in a ‘complex’ year

started on August 4 almond harvest campaign marked by drought and high temperatures. Noticeable effects on both the fruit and its subsequent performance and employee. Year “more complicated by everything If we take into account that water scarcity reduces production, almond still not strong enough to open the hood and adjusting the working hours according to the whiplash heat in Córdoba.

So much so that at the El Viento farm in Santaella’s La Montiela district, they are playing with the clock to avoid the moments of greatest risk. This means they start at 5:30 in the morning and sometimes have to reduce the day. As Operations Manager Juan Manuel explains, the start of the harvest this year has been moved forward by just one day. But if you look at it with perspective, starts earlier every time. The first almond trees were planted on these lands in 2015. At first, the manager remembers that work began in the middle of the month. Now, “earlier every year.” This is because “trees without greenery” bear fruit earlier.

This lack of greenery is due to drought. Juan Manuel shows the results by showing his surroundings. “See what a drought is? the tree in its glory has nothing to do with it‘ he says, counting the almonds on a cleaned branch.

Final production will confirm his observations, but he predicts it will be quite remarkable kilosso that they can stay in the middle. A precise view also allows you to see unopened fruit, something that makes the task of removing the cap even more difficult later on. “The normal thing is for this to separate from the almond and dry out, but then the pipe is fine,” he notes.

A few weeks ago, Ignacio Fernández de Mesa, president of Asaja Córdoba, season is coming Developing with less production It is higher than the previous one, both due to the limits set for irrigation and because of the cold and lack of precipitation in the autumn months of last year.

calculation year

El Viento farm has 90 hectares of almond trees. For each hectare, the manager states: 6,000, 7,000 required even 8000 cubic meters of water. They were barely able to use 1300 for this campaign. “This year has been a year of many calculations regarding irrigation, you can just spend it and it has to come to you,” Juan Manuel complained. In this case, it remains only to “keep them” until the appearance improves. If it gets better, because the manager is already worried about next year. “The bad is coming,” he says. For the next campaign to be successful, “it has to rain a lot now.” In addition to the scarcity of water, the rise in prices and, as Juan Manuel put it, “fuels have doubled, phytosanitary products have doubled, fertilizers have doubled…”. Of course, “almonds are low, not double,” says the manager. And remember, “The problem we have in agriculture is that they pay less and everything is left to intermediaries, the price of the field is not reflected in the supermarket.”

Source: Informacion

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