The agricultural production in San Rafael and Alvear is not going through its best moment. After the problems caused by severe hail storms, the traditional problems caused by lack of competitiveness are also looming, causing fewer and fewer people to remain committed to the sector.
In this sense, looking at the harvest prospects of the Institute of Rural Development, it is worth noting that the acreage devoted to fruit crops in the south of the province dropped by 976 hectares from one campaign to the next.
The situation, marked by lack of profitability and with concerns about the development of climate contingencies, has resulted in growers abandoning the work on their farms, with the consequent loss of many productive hectares of different fruits.
In this sense, comparing the reports from the IDR, we can see that in the 2014-2015 campaign there were 719 hectares cultivated with apricots, while this year the figure has dropped to 622; a drop of almost 100 hectares.
The same happened with plums intended for processing, which registered the biggest drop in the entire oasis, falling from 12,511 hectares in the previous season to about 11,561 this year, which means about one thousand hectares planted with this fruit have disappeared, even though the yields and prices achieved in the market were among the best in the fruit growing sector.
Meanwhile, fresh peaches and plums remain stable, with 1,792 and 335 hectares, respectively. The same goes for apples, with around 70 hectares planted.
When talking about production growth, only two products register some development. Pears, with 36 new hectares, are the first one; they have gone from 1,636 to 1,660 hectares. There was also a slight rise in the acreage devoted to peaches for processing, which went from 2,345 hectares in the 2014-2015 campaign to 2,392 in 2015-2016, which means 47 new hectares.
As for the province in general, the acreage decreased by 1,200 hectares, from 40,527 to 39,313, with the loss of a hundred hectares of apricots and 1,300 hectares of plums for processing, and about one hundred new hectares of pears, 240 of peaches for processing and 20 of apples.
The numbers speak for themselves and reveal a crisis in the fruit growing sector in this part of the province, as well as the need for urgent action to protect the sector from further losses.
Source: diariosanrafael.com.ar
