The lack of water, the shadow of an increase in electricity rates and tax reform threaten to reduce between 5 and 15% the sowing of strawberries and tomatoes, the star products of Baja California.
According to Conrado Gonzalez Sandoval, member of the Agricultural Council of California, the most severe problem they are currently facing is the ten year drought in the region.
"There are producers that are expecting it rains and that have made programs that are similar to the ones they had last year, but the reality is that, coming October, we will see our surface reduced," he said.
According to him, some growers of cucumber and chilli stopped planting a while ago but the reduction of strawberries and tomatoes began last year.
If it does not rain by October, when we plant strawberries, we expect the planted area would decrease between 5 and 10%, he said.
If there was no rainfall in the coming winter, he emphasized, we wouldn't plant 15% of the current tomato production by March of next year.
The reduction, he said, has not only affected farmers and their income, but also thousands of workers who have lost their jobs.
In recent years Baja California's strawberry has been at the top of national production and it is one of the fruits that bring more revenue to the state.
According to statistics of the Ministry of Agricultural Development (Sefoa) in 2013 the state harvested 123,586 tons of strawberries. That is, the state produced 23.75 tons out of every 100 tons produced in the country.
However, in value terms, Baja California is the state that earned the most income for its strawberries, surpassing even Michoacán, which accounted for more than half of the strawberry hectares in Mexico.
Ángel López López, director of the Secretariat of Agriculture Agricultural Development of Baja California, stressed that they had a better performance in the hectares sown through the use of agricultural technology is achieved.
The use of shade houses and greenhouses, where one can regulate the temperature and humidity, as well as the use of drip irrigation to optimize up to 40% of the water and fertilizer use, have been key, he said.
In total there are 51 strawberry growers in the state, concentrated in Ensenada, Camalú and Vicente Guerrero. 87% of their production is for export and the rest is for the national and local markets, he said.
What is lacking to continue growing?
Strawberry and tomato have been able to thrive in the region because of its favourable climate that allows producers to extend the production period and because we've been using cutting edge technology for the past 30 years, said the representative of the Agricultural Council.
Only Israel and the southern part of Spain have been using irrigation of desalinated water for decades and working with drip irrigation, Sandoval Gonzalez said.
He argued that once the water issue was solved they needed more land and access to credit to purchase technology in order to continue growing.
80% of the nearly 3,200 acres of strawberry in Baja California are irrigated with desalinated water, but this water is ending and it is necessary to obtain permits for offshore wells, he said.
Source: lacronica.com