With monoculture – the practice
of planting a single, extended crop – comes a higher profit, but at the same more
risk. The gigantic and extended olive tree population of Spain could become the
next cash-crop to be in danger. As Iberia
Nature says, ‘...Spain is by some way the country with the highest
number of olive trees (more than 300 million), in the world and is nowadays the
world's leading olive and olive oil producer and exporter. Of the 2.1 million
hectares (5.19 million acres) of olive groves, 92% are dedicated to olive oil
production...’. Now, according to El Periódico,
a destructive bacteria, known disturbingly as ‘the Ebola of the Olive Tree’,
has been found in a Valencia plantation in Guadalest, Alicante. The bacterium
spreads rapidly and dries out the trees by inhibiting the passage of the sap. The
ecologists are working hard to contain the outbreak of xylella fastidiosa, while being aware that the olive oil business
in Spain is worth at least 1,886 million euros annually.
Worse still, the plague doesn’t only attack the olive trees; it also will dry out citrus trees, plum, peach, almonds and grape-vines.
Worse still, the plague doesn’t only attack the olive trees; it also will dry out citrus trees, plum, peach, almonds and grape-vines.
1 comment:
Hi Lenox,
It's a very worrying problem you highlight here. I live in a little town surrounded by grapevines and the thought of them having this bacteria is an awful one. I hate to think what it would do to the Spanish agriculutural economy and people's livlihoods if it is left unchecked.
Let's hope "they" (ie. the various authorities) get it under control very quickly.
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