Fending off the ravages of climate change in Spain’s farmland may turn on how well its farmers can adopt new techniques that help restore their environment’s life-giving capacities.
Finding wild asparagus sprouting at the feet of his almond trees puts a smile on the face of Juan Garcia Chacon, a Spanish farmer. The natural vegetation is a sign that the farm’s strategies to counter erosion are working.
Mr. Chacon, who last year left a job as a vehicle test driver to farm alongside his retired father, is one of many farmers across Spain’s Andalusia region who are working to find new agricultural practices to counter the dry winds of climate change. “My first year is marked by few almonds but tremendous hope,” he says with conviction.
Climate change experts estimate that two-thirds of Spain is vulnerable to encroaching desertification and accelerated soil erosion. Due to a mix of natural and socioeconomic factors, the Mediterranean nation is considered the worst afflicted when it comes to land degradation in arid, semiarid, and dry areas of the European Union. So farmers like Mr. Chacon are turning to regenerative agriculture in a bid to revitalize local landscapes, economies, and communities.
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The AlVelAl association
The AlVelAl association brings together the plateau regions of Granada, Los Veléz, Alto Almanzora, Guadix and the Northeast of Murcia in Spain, well known for their production of high quality rain-fed almonds. One of our main aims is to mobilize the local communities and to convey that the vision of a self-sufficient region, full of life and growth, is achievable when ecological agriculture and livestock techniques that improve the soil’s fertility and absorption of water are applied.
