TORRENTIAL rain caused by DANA Alice in Alicante province has been welcomed by local farmers and growers.
They say the downpours have been beneficial for rain-fed crops that have suffered from the prolonged drought of recent years.
Ramon Espinosa from the Asaja Alicante young farmers group described the recent rain as ‘positive’.
READ MORE:
“The rainfall has had a good impact in areas such as Ibi, Alcoy, Teulada, and Relleu to mitigate the extreme dryness for almond, cereal, cherry, muscatel grape, and olive groves,” he commented.
“It is still insufficient for these crops to recover their productivity after years of extreme drought but the moisture has helped prepare the soil for future plantings,” Espinosa added.
Muscatel grape grower, Juan Jose Buigues, based in Teulada, said: “2024 was a blank as the drought almost wiped out the crop for good, and we needed good rain to fully recover.”
After several lean seasons, cherry farmers are hoping the heavy rain will revitalise the trees in the Alicante Mountains with a helpful 125 litres per square metre recorded in the Vall de Gallinera region.
The downside- according to Asaja Alicante- is that the almond harvest in the Ibi area has been delayed due to wet soil.
Farmer Ramon Sola said he had to ‘postpone the harvest for a week and a half, but the rain was moderate and did not cause significant damage’.
Hugo Quintanilla, head of Asaja’s olive and olive oil sector said they had to make repairs to roads ‘for days’ to access olive groves in order to start harvesting’.
Asaja called on authorities to look after rural infrastructures properly and to increase maintenance work on roads and drainage systems.
They also want plans to guarantee the existence of dry-land crop farming.
Click here to read more Alicante News from The Olive Press.
