The City Hall of San Juan de la Rambla quoted this Wednesday, July 20, 2022, to the media in The Fountain of the Bardan agricultural zone of mediocrities at the foot of the Mount Teideto claim the importance of potato cultivation in the history and future of this town and announce the start-up, together with the Association for Rural Development Icod de los Trigos–San Juan de la Rambla Y box sevenof local initiatives to value ramblera potatoes and generate the necessary generational change that puts an end to the progressive abandonment of agricultural activity.
under the motto The potato, a symbol of ramblera identity, the Consistory of San Juan de la Rambla wants to give more visibility and social acceptance to a product from the countryside that has played a key role in local history and that is currently not going through its best moment. The gradual aging of farmers and the scant generational change have turned on the alarm lights in the local government (PSOE-AIS-CC) and in the aforementioned association, they want to work with the new generations to reverse the progressive abandonment of this crop, which has been badly damaged in recent years by the Guatemalan moth plague. An authentic agrarian drama for which both entities demand “more investment and research” that allow “the potato to be exported abroad again”, according to the mayor Ezekiel Dominguez.
The president stressed that the main objectives of this project, conceived to have continuity and grow in the future, are to involve the entire educational community so that it knows and gives value to the ramblera potato; promote coexistence and the integration of diversity through the celebration of a monographic festive day of the potatoand expand knowledge about the potato, its different types and its cultivation.
the mayor of agriculture, Priscila Diaz (PSOE), explained that different activities will be organized such as “a drawing contest about the potato in which the infant and primary students of local schools will participate; a creation contest reels through the Tik Tok platform, in which the students of the IES San Juan de la Rambla will participate; the elaboration of a mural on the potato by the students of the Municipal Infant School; the recording of a short film by the Occupational Center of San Juan de la Rambla; keynote talks on potato cultivation; children’s workshops on the mechanization of cultivation, and samples and tastings».
The final culmination will be, on September 16 in the Plaza de San José, the Great Festival of the Ramblera Popewhich will be held annually and will include workshops on the mechanization of potato cultivation, talks on working with this tuber, a tribute to Francis Bello Perezthe presentation of a video of the Icod de los Trigos-San Juan de la Rambla Association, tastings and musical performances.
A work that began in 2005
The Association for Rural Development Icod de los Trigos-San Juan de la Rambla began to be forged in 2005, together with the declaration of San Juan de la Rambla in defense of the rural world. He had the advice and support of Antonio Bello Pérez, who in 2012 was proposed as the town’s adoptive son “when the current mayor, Ezequiel Domínguez, was mayor of Agriculture, and Fidela Velázquez (present yesterday at the event) occupied the Mayor’s Office” , as recalled this Wednesday, July 20, the representative of this group, Javier Ruiz. Since then he has worked on numerous studies and investigations that have been taken to conferences, symposiums and meetings in various parts of the country. From that collaboration arose the creation of “the main library of the primary sector that exists in the Canary Islands, which is the Antonio Bello Library”, according to Javier Ruiz. These funds are kept in the Casa de los Pérez, located in the historic center of San Juan de la Rambla.
