In recent decades, organic farming has been slowly spreading across the island and currently occupies around 10% of the cultivated area, with a total of 385 hectares. Its presence is greater in the cultivation of onions and sweet potatoes and, to a lesser extent, in potatoes, grapes and vegetables.
Despite its virtues for preserving the landscape and for providing quality products to its inhabitants, organic farming in Lanzarote faces its own challenges, such as the lack of training for farmers and awareness among consumers. Also challenges common to conventional agriculture such as the lack of a reliable irrigation system of its own that improves the quality of available water.
Organic farming is a way of producing food sustainably, "like what was done here in the old days when there were no pesticides. When the farmer had limited means and there was a balance between livestock and agriculture, so that the organic matter produced was used to cultivate native varieties," explains Leandro Caraballo, president of the Lanzarote irrigators' association.
The foundations of organic farming are based on strengthening the plant so that it does not need plant protection products, as well as using the appropriate varieties and techniques. "It deals with very normal things, of common sense: planting native varieties, having more extensive plantations, with space between plants, and more resistant ones," summarizes Caraballo.
Virtues of organic farming
The advantages of organic farming are many. Firstly, the preservation of soils and the landscape. An even more important characteristic in Lanzarote, since its agriculture also has to deal with low quality water, which is not treated for agricultural use.
"Conventional agricultural production increases very rapidly at the beginning, due to the incorporation of chemical fertilizers, but it reaches a point, after three or four years, where the yield begins to decrease," explains Alfredo Villalba, owner of organic vegetable plantations in Haría.
However, Villalba continues, "in organic farming, you start from the bottom, but the increase is always constant, and after two years you can achieve equal or even better yields than in conventional farming, because the health of the soil is much greater." In organic farming, you better conserve the biodiversity of the soil, while in conventional farming you completely destroy it over the years.
"Something exotic and distant"
Despite the fact that organic farming, in essence, does nothing more than recover the traditional way of cultivating, most farmers in Lanzarote see organic farming as "something exotic and distant," says Caraballo.
The president of the Lanzarote irrigators' association points out that there have not been "enough outreach and training campaigns for farmers" in organic farming, so there is still some reluctance to cultivate without plant protection products and herbicides.
Caraballo also misses campaigns to train consumers in the advantages of organic products.
Despite the fact that, on occasions, "with a kilo of organic sweet potato or onion you can get up to 30 or 40 percent more price", often, "the consumer does not distinguish the product well", explain from the Agrarian Transformation Society (S.A.T.) El Jable, committed to traditional agricultural systems.
25% of Lanzarote's organic production goes to Ecocomedores
One of the good news for organic producers in Lanzarote in recent years has been the creation of the Ecocomedores program by the Government of the Canary Islands.
This program is based on the incorporation of organic, fresh, local and seasonal products in the menus of schools, social health centers and collective catering in the Canary Islands.
25% of Lanzarote's organic production, from up to nine different producers, goes to Ecocomedores, which guarantees a fair price set annually by the producers and which does not vary throughout the period, to avoid market fluctuations.
In Lanzarote, the Capellanía school in Arrecife and, since this year, the Costa Teguise school, in the town of the same name, participate in the program.
Gustavo Crespo, head of Ecocomedores, explains that students from both schools take seasonal fruits and vegetables of organic production. "It is mainly local product from Lanzarote and if something is missing it is brought from other islands".
The program also contributes to raising awareness among students and, by extension, their families. "The students are explained the origin of the vegetables and fruits. The parents are very happy. The schools participating in the project have a waiting list to access the canteens due to the demand they have", explains Crespo, who also anticipates that they are "in talks with several centers to expand the program in Lanzarote".
The key to water
The Ecocomedores program helps organic producers in Lanzarote, but it is not enough. Organic agriculture producers also face many of the problems that plague conventional agriculture in Lanzarote.
As organic farming has been gaining ground very slowly, the total agricultural territory on the island has only decreased. It currently occupies just over 4% of the island's territory.
The labor force in the sector is aging and generates very low incomes. "There is a lack of professionalization of the sector and sufficiently attractive income to make investments," says Villalba.
One of the great keys is water, its quality and guaranteed supply. "If we had water adapted to agricultural consumption things would be totally different," explains the owner of organic vegetable plantations in Haría.
"While we share the general water distribution channel, with very low quality water for agricultural use and with farms that do not even have a daily supply," it is very difficult to increase the profitability of the sector.
That administrations support the agricultural sector and, in particular, entrepreneurs who produce food in an environmentally friendly way, is important to guarantee Lanzarote residents access to local and seasonal products. But not only, because traditional agriculture also plays a very important role in preserving a landscape that, together with the volcanoes and beaches, has defined Lanzarote's unique tourist brand, which accounts for 85% of the island's economy.
