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26-06-2022, 09:24 PM
Diario:
Dreaming of a self-sufficient Fuerteventura at an energy and food level
The Plan, which was presented at the technical conferences on livestock of the Fair of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of Fuerteventura (EAGF), proposes the application of 40 direct measures in the agricultural sector, 15 in the livestock, five in fishing and five in aquaculture, in addition to 44 global measures of general application.
The researcher and professor at the University Roque Calero (Calero Luna Engineering), one of the three researchers in charge of drafting the plan, details as key three main objectives: food self-sufficiency, energy self-sufficiency and water sustenance (produced with renewable energy) for all crops.
"In the first place, it is essential to guarantee water for small and large crops, starting up desalination plants with renewable energies that would allow water to be produced very cheaply and with high quality: the problem of water in Fuerteventura, with this route, should never exist," says the researcher, who indicates that the plan proposes "to supply water to all small farmers and also distribute it in all small crops, also the domestic ones, which are abandoned: to provide them with their pond, to favor the return of orchards and family crops, but with guaranteed water".
To achieve food self-sufficiency, one of the most ambitious objectives of the lines developed, Calero points out the creation of "food cells", professionalized and technical, large agricultural infrastructures where to concentrate activities and services of the sector, in order to reduce the environmental impact on the territory: "The proposal is to make three large agricultural production centers on the Island: high-tech crops, which are also prepared for climate change (they are closed, vertical in many cases and very technical) that guarantee food production regardless of atmospheric conditions. It would be about creating three parks, as industrial estates that instead of having industry have food production, "he explains.
In the line of energy, the expert is categorical: the entire sector can and should be nourished by renewable energies, so that the development of a key sector for environmental sustainability is enhanced on the one hand and, on the other, zero impact on the environment is guaranteed in the actions carried out by the sector.
"The rest of the plan deals with varied actions, among which the training and professionalization of workers in the sector, projecting and starting up desalination stations from renewable energies for agricultural supply, planning the acquisition of refrigerators powered by renewables to maintain food, associating with tourism and with the cultural and educational fabric ... The plan covers more than a hundred proposals, with their economic valuation," explains Calero.
As can be extracted from the document, the proposal for the total execution of the actions (within a period of ten years) would involve a public investment of about 115 million euros, divided between the different administrations: the Cabildo of Fuerteventura would assume almost 45 million euros of the investment, the Government of the Canary Islands about 59 million euros, the Government of Spain and the European Union more than 37 million euros and the municipalities of the Island around 500,000 euros. The bulk of the planned budget resides, however, in private financing (68 percent of the total), quantified at more than 300 million euros.
Initial actions
Although the Strategic Plan defines large-scale investments and actions, the baselines and a development schedule for the gradual execution of the different proposals are also defined, where training, guaranteeing water supply and the analysis of the specific characteristics of the market and the territory are considered paramount.
Thus, among other issues, it is indicated as a starting point the realization of different studies that allow quantifying food production needs of the Island: typology and volume of the diet of agricultural products of residents and tourists, dependence on the outside of the agricultural products consumed, energy costs, the necessary resources in types of cultivation, soil, water and technology to cover the consumption of the population or the analysis of types of crops for their introduction, among a large number of investigations. Also proposals such as the creation of a bank of traditional agricultural seeds and their conservation in germplasm, or the preparation, together with the private sector, of a business catalog related to the primary sector.
The Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Water, David de Vera, points out as priority aspects, once the process culminates and the plan has been accepted and approved in the plenary session of the Island Corporation, "to start the work of training professionals in the sector, which is one of the key tools to professionalize it, because it favors generational replacement, and implement an island-level irrigation plan for water production."
In relation to this irrigation plan, De Vera points to the creation of "three production centers for agricultural water, with the use of alternative energies, linked exclusively to agriculture. And in parallel, take advantage of the purified water that is currently discharged into the sea, try to increase irrigation water by incorporating purified water, which has an energy cost that we are not making profitable".
"It was necessary to make a comprehensive study of the situation of the Island and define the strategic lines of the Ministry in relation to the development of the sector, with clear and long-term objectives," says the counselor. "It is ambitious, but if it is applied continuously, it is already a huge advance if we really want the primary sector to be an economic engine and an alternative employment on the Island."
link to original article for pics
Dreaming of a self-sufficient Fuerteventura at an energy and food level
- The Strategic Plan of the Primary Sector contemplates more than 100 proposals and defines strategic lines for the Island, from the perspective of sustainable development.
The Plan, which was presented at the technical conferences on livestock of the Fair of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of Fuerteventura (EAGF), proposes the application of 40 direct measures in the agricultural sector, 15 in the livestock, five in fishing and five in aquaculture, in addition to 44 global measures of general application.
The researcher and professor at the University Roque Calero (Calero Luna Engineering), one of the three researchers in charge of drafting the plan, details as key three main objectives: food self-sufficiency, energy self-sufficiency and water sustenance (produced with renewable energy) for all crops.
"In the first place, it is essential to guarantee water for small and large crops, starting up desalination plants with renewable energies that would allow water to be produced very cheaply and with high quality: the problem of water in Fuerteventura, with this route, should never exist," says the researcher, who indicates that the plan proposes "to supply water to all small farmers and also distribute it in all small crops, also the domestic ones, which are abandoned: to provide them with their pond, to favor the return of orchards and family crops, but with guaranteed water".
To achieve food self-sufficiency, one of the most ambitious objectives of the lines developed, Calero points out the creation of "food cells", professionalized and technical, large agricultural infrastructures where to concentrate activities and services of the sector, in order to reduce the environmental impact on the territory: "The proposal is to make three large agricultural production centers on the Island: high-tech crops, which are also prepared for climate change (they are closed, vertical in many cases and very technical) that guarantee food production regardless of atmospheric conditions. It would be about creating three parks, as industrial estates that instead of having industry have food production, "he explains.
In the line of energy, the expert is categorical: the entire sector can and should be nourished by renewable energies, so that the development of a key sector for environmental sustainability is enhanced on the one hand and, on the other, zero impact on the environment is guaranteed in the actions carried out by the sector.
"The rest of the plan deals with varied actions, among which the training and professionalization of workers in the sector, projecting and starting up desalination stations from renewable energies for agricultural supply, planning the acquisition of refrigerators powered by renewables to maintain food, associating with tourism and with the cultural and educational fabric ... The plan covers more than a hundred proposals, with their economic valuation," explains Calero.
As can be extracted from the document, the proposal for the total execution of the actions (within a period of ten years) would involve a public investment of about 115 million euros, divided between the different administrations: the Cabildo of Fuerteventura would assume almost 45 million euros of the investment, the Government of the Canary Islands about 59 million euros, the Government of Spain and the European Union more than 37 million euros and the municipalities of the Island around 500,000 euros. The bulk of the planned budget resides, however, in private financing (68 percent of the total), quantified at more than 300 million euros.
Initial actions
Although the Strategic Plan defines large-scale investments and actions, the baselines and a development schedule for the gradual execution of the different proposals are also defined, where training, guaranteeing water supply and the analysis of the specific characteristics of the market and the territory are considered paramount.
Thus, among other issues, it is indicated as a starting point the realization of different studies that allow quantifying food production needs of the Island: typology and volume of the diet of agricultural products of residents and tourists, dependence on the outside of the agricultural products consumed, energy costs, the necessary resources in types of cultivation, soil, water and technology to cover the consumption of the population or the analysis of types of crops for their introduction, among a large number of investigations. Also proposals such as the creation of a bank of traditional agricultural seeds and their conservation in germplasm, or the preparation, together with the private sector, of a business catalog related to the primary sector.
The Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Water, David de Vera, points out as priority aspects, once the process culminates and the plan has been accepted and approved in the plenary session of the Island Corporation, "to start the work of training professionals in the sector, which is one of the key tools to professionalize it, because it favors generational replacement, and implement an island-level irrigation plan for water production."
In relation to this irrigation plan, De Vera points to the creation of "three production centers for agricultural water, with the use of alternative energies, linked exclusively to agriculture. And in parallel, take advantage of the purified water that is currently discharged into the sea, try to increase irrigation water by incorporating purified water, which has an energy cost that we are not making profitable".
"It was necessary to make a comprehensive study of the situation of the Island and define the strategic lines of the Ministry in relation to the development of the sector, with clear and long-term objectives," says the counselor. "It is ambitious, but if it is applied continuously, it is already a huge advance if we really want the primary sector to be an economic engine and an alternative employment on the Island."
link to original article for pics
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