By Danilo P. Padua, PhD
fumigation. ”
Before everyone took a refreshing ‘long’ vacation last week, two experts from the country that introduced to us the so called called Semana santa, gave an introductory lecture on strawberry cultivation in Spain. It was a very informative and challenging presentation.
The main lecturer was Prof. Fatima Martinez of the University of Huelva (UHU). She had been doing a number of research work on strawberry for several years now, focusing mainly on postharvest. Together with her actual experiences, she presented a brief but intriguing picture of how modern strawberry production is being carried out in Spain.
UHU is a state university located in Huelva city which is in South-West Spain. It became a university in 1993 after gaining autonomy and consequently separation from the old University of Sevilla. It has about 13,000 students enrolled in its three campuses. There are 36 undergraduate, and 27 graduate programs in its fold. In addition, it offers what they call home-designed courses. Nine per cent of its students are foreigners. There are 700 exchange students every year. Students pay an average university fee per year the equivalent of something like PhP51,000.00
The university employs 475 admin staff and not less than 900 lecturers for a faculty: student ratio of less than 15. Compare that with most of the Philippine state universities’ more than 50! UHU has a budget roughly equivalent to PhP4.2 billion. Again compare that with most local SUCs’ budget of less than PhP500 million. The university has 90 research groups working on various crops and disciplines, agriculture being just one of them. UHU is ranked 41st in Spain and number 1224 among the world’s universities. Considering that it is “young”, its rank is a testimony of its excellent programs and the high quality of its education. We in the higher education in the country, can only salivate at the moment with this kind of performance. I am sure that with adequate budget and administrative support, we can be at par, or even better than many universities in the world ranked in the top 3,000.
Currently, UHU has international projects with China, Morocco and Albania. Soon, this group will include Taiwan, Russia, Japan USA, Canada, Kazakhstan, South Africa, and the Philippines. The internationalization of this university is also readily seen in its program on intensive language learning in English, German, Italian, French, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, and modern Greek.
The university is located in a place which produces 90% of all strawberry in Spain. If La Trinidad, Benguet is the strawberry capital of the Philippines, Huelva is not only playing the same role in Spain but is also reputed to be the most important strawberry production area in Europe. It has at least 7,000 hectares grown to strawberry with about 600 hectares devoted to soil less culture. Only 20% of Spain’s total yearly production of more than 261,000 tons is consumed locally. All the rest are exported to neighboring countries.
It is therefore fitting that we learn from experts in that place, represented by the two Spanish professors.
Let us listen now to Dr. Fatima. “The crop system in Spain is annually in raised beds covered with black polyethylene, using fresh plants from high altitude nurseries. Microtunnels (30%) and Macrotunnels (70%) are used to protect the crop.”
She added that “the most modern techniques of cultivation are used: localized irrigation, fertigation, optimum density of plantation and other techniques”. According to Dr. Pedro, in Spain, they plant around 60,000 plants per hectare. Their average yield is more than 40 tons per hectare, but with the present modern technique that they are using, it has been documented that one strawberry plant alone can produce 1.5kg. Multiply that with 60,000 and you can get an unimaginable yield per hectare.
In Europe, they usually harvest for 45 days because they are using what is called frigo plants, or newly harvest runners that had been in cold (-200C) storage for about 6 months. But in Spain, particularly in Huelva, they harvest from Jan to June which is almost exactly the same time as our own harvest.
Dr. Fatima said that in their place, strawberry is planted year-in, year-out in the same farm resulting in accumulation of disease-causing organisms that necessitate soil fumigation. The soil less culture that they are slowly embracing greatly minimizes such build-up, thereby making their practices more environment- friendly.
The technology, according to her, largely contribute to the improvement of crop yield and quality. Benefits from using it include conservation of energy and water, reduction of chemical application, Since conditions around the plants are drier, there is no problem on rotting of fruits. Also, collection of the fruit is very comfortable, residues are minimized as the substrate to grow the plant can be reused or used as organic amendment for soil and the plastic bags used in planting can be recycled.
In harvesting, the señora from Spain said that fruits that are already just ripe should be picked since the quality is high. A half-ripe will have much lower quality such as lower anti-oxidant and vitamin contents.
It had been noted that since Dr. Fatima presented very important information on strawberry cultivation, it was suggested by the dean of the College of Agriculture, Dr. Leoncia Tandang, that the other Spanish expert, Dr. Pedro Palencia, should present his lecture to local farmers. To which Dr. Darlyn Tagarino, the director of the International Relations Office of BSU, and the coordinator of the experts’ visit, acceded. A relevant seminar will be arranged by her office as per approval by Dr. Feliciano Calora, the BSU president. The local strawberry farmers will surely benefit from it. Abangan.**
