Despite initial scepticism, pistachios are determined to become the great disruptor of the Spanish countryside.
In just a decade, they have grown by 3,000% and generated more than 200,000 direct and indirect jobs throughout Spain. We are talking about pistachios: the “green gold” that, despite initial scepticism, has radically changed hectares and hectares in the heart of the country. But we have known all this for years. What we did not know is that this agricultural boom would lead to a whole agrotechnological revolution.
The epicentre of “pistachotech”.
With 80% of Spanish pistachios, Castilla-La Mancha has gone one step further to become the European epicentre of this “pistachio technology wave”: from “laboratory” rootstocks and new varieties that are less prone to blight to drones, precision irrigation and sterile insect programmes.
However, that is not the most interesting thing. As the Nobel Prize winners recently reminded us, the interesting thing about this technological boom is the cultural shift towards an innovative agricultural environment. But let’s take it one step at a time.
What is really happening in Castilla La Mancha?
As Ángel Minaya (director of Agróptimum) explained in Enclave ODS, the ultimate idea is to ‘control the entire process from the source: the seed, the tree, the management and, subsequently, the industry’. This has led a group of researchers, entrepreneurs and producers to initiate (often separately) a veritable revolution ranging from genetics to industrial organisation.
Let’s talk about the seed…
This has been one of the first battles. For years, California has led the way in creating varieties with vigour and high tolerance to pests, salinity and low temperatures. And places like Cuenca have been key to their widespread adoption.
They are true all-rounders that also reduce alternate bearing (alternating harvests) and improve harvest adjustment compared to traditional varieties. They produce more, are more stable and can be harvested with fewer resources.
…but it’s not just about seeds.
The truth is that even with the best seeds in the world, a genetic approach is not enough. This is even less so in areas such as Spain, where water stress and the pressure of desertification processes are the order of the day.
That is why, beyond grafts and varieties, precision irrigation and nutrition, computerised phenology, drones and their new remote sensing systems, and the mechanisation of harvesting play a central role in pushing the countryside towards a techno-digital era that has yet to take hold.
Until now.
And the best example of this is the speed with which the Spanish countryside is considering implementing sterile insect techniques which, although not yet fully necessary due to the youth of the plantations, are the gold standard of pest management.
This is good news.
After all, pistachios depend on opening and closing the harvest window properly and, above all, processing the harvest quickly. Without extensive technical and industrial infrastructure, this is almost impossible.
A rapidly growing ecosystem.
In a context where agriculture needs huge amounts of genetic engineering, automation and real-time data, the creation of a high-tech hub in the heart of Castilla La Mancha is excellent news.
Not only does it seem to be an excellent tool for fixing the population and developing the depopulated areas of Spain, but it is also beginning to take shape as a great opportunity for the Spanish agricultural industry to reinvent itself.
