SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 26 Aug. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Canarian Institute of Agricultural Research (ICIA) carries out different actions to promote the cultivation of fig trees and preserve a product that has been selected over time by farmers.
With this, it is intended to promote quality crops that can be incorporated into the market of the islands.
The fig tree, says the Ministry of Agriculture of the Government of the Canary Islands in a note, is a “clear example” of traditional cultivation in the Canary Islands, with a high productive potential to be exploited, as stated by the researcher from the Department of Plant Production in Tropical Zones and Subtropical, María José Grajal Martín.
“We believe that the fig tree, which has played an important role in the island’s diet, can have a good future in the fresh fruit market if quality figs are produced, not only in the months of July and August, but also in June and at other times,” he explains.
Despite not having large regular productions under traditional growing conditions, the goal is for it to be harvested in other months of the year.
Currently, both the ICIA and the Center for the Conservation of Agricultural Biodiversity of Tenerife (CCBAT), belonging to the Cabildo de Tenerife, have important collections of fig trees of great interest among farmers on the island, a variety of fig trees that has been made visible with the promotion of visits to farms on the island.
The technician from the Agricultural Extension and Rural Development Agency of Güímar, Óscar Luis Saavedra Oliva, highlights the ability of the fruit tree to adapt to the conditions of the Canary Islands as the main planting attraction.
“Unlike other fruit varieties, it needs little water,” he says.
This is a condition to promote its commercial cultivation in the archipelago, both for the recovery of abandoned land and for the commercial production of quality fruit with high added value.
The technician clarifies that “the advantageous environmental conditions that support the planting of fig trees on land in the archipelago position the varieties of traditional fig trees, such as Gomera (also known as Parda and Nogal), Brevera (also called Breval and Negra), Blanca, Bicariña and From a pound, with competitive prices in the main markets of the islands, an added productive incentive for the owners of low-yielding family fig trees.”
With the intention of materializing this commercial and consumer aspiration, the ICIA has carried out, in collaboration with the councils of all the islands, several actions to gain an in-depth knowledge of the Canary fig germplasm.
Actions such as the current advice that the Cabildo de Tenerife and the ICIA began last July, with the first of the training visits to the La Planta estate, in Güímar, show the “institutional commitment” for the future of figs in the islands, highlights the Executive.
