The story begins in 1954 with a trip along the national 340 between Marbella and Barcelona. It includes a Chilean-German businessman, Roger Magdahl, and a Basque agronomist, Luis Sarasola. They look for the perfect place to do what Magdahl did best: plant avocados.
They chose Almuñécar and, after many tests, in October 1960 the first native avocados were sent to the Sitjar fruit store in Barcelona. Few imagined during those six years of crossing the desert that, half a century later, there were more than 14,000 hectares of tropical fruits in the south of Spain.
So many that they have become a problem.
A problem called “water.” The La Viñuela reservoir, which supplies the Axarquía of Malaga (and, therefore, most of the avocado and mango crops) is at 13.94% of its capacity. And we could consider this a good year: at this point in 2023 it was at 7.88%.
Last year in Almuñécar (a few dozen kilometers to the east, but already in the province of Granada), about 90% of mango and avocado production was lost. The drought had dried up six wells and in another dozen the “sodium and chloride levels are triple normal.”
Square the circle. As Iñaki Hormaza, from the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), explained, this is especially worrying when we talk about avocados. To the extent that these fruits require “high quality” water, with a low concentration of salts, sodium and chloride, “to supply the 14,000 hectares of crops, the researcher estimates that 74 cubic hectometers of water would be necessary.”
The figures don’t come out.
What can be done? Hormaza maintains that the only way to guarantee the future of the subtropics in Andalusia is by adopting “adaptive measures.” Things ranging from an ambitious genetic improvement program (that develops varieties that are more resistant to drought) to resource optimization policies or new strategies to combat pests.
Tens of thousands of tons of these products are produced between Axarquía and the tropical coast of Granada alone. It is a true “green mine” that, despite having been highly criticized (and rightly so), has become a regional economic engine. This has caused water tensions to continue to deepen.
Desalinize water for agriculture? That is the big question that is beginning to haunt the region. Above all, after the prosecutor’s office and the Nature Protection Service (Seprona) have dismantled dozens of plots (and hundreds of people involved) related to the irregular extraction of water.
As the technology behind desalination plants becomes more efficient and cheaper, the idea of building one specifically dedicated to fruit trees is beginning to take shape. In 2023, the University of Malaga and Trops (one of the largest cooperatives in the sector) announced their intention to develop one, also using photovoltaic energy to obtain water “cheaply, sustainably and with zero waste.”
The project is being studied, but (as often happens with infrastructures of this type) it is behind schedule. Too late. Although the Spanish saying already says that “it is never too late if the happiness is good.”
Image | Mumumio | Pepe Chocolate
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