A farmer from Tinajo has been sleeping on his farm for two weeks, after they started stealing the watermelons he has grown. On a mattress and inside a tent, although with water and electricity, Jesús Martínez has spent the nights watching over his land, in order to prevent the thefts from continuing.
"I had to go to this extreme, because practically every day, they were stealing two or three watermelons from me," explains Jesús Martínez, who also states that whoever was stealing them "clearly didn't know much about agriculture, since they were taking them green." "We opted for this situation, because the fear is that they will take them when they are already ripe and leave you without a harvest," he adds.
In fact, according to him, another colleague from Tinajo had "80 watermelons" stolen a few days ago. "You're left with an incredibly foolish face. You're working for four or five months, pampering and taking care of them, only for some guy to come along and ruin your harvest," says this farmer.
Furthermore, he assures that other colleagues, although they don't stay overnight, are also watching over their farms in order to prevent thefts. "Some have watched and even taken the shotgun, at least to make noise and show that you're there, not to do anything to them," he explains.
Now, and after the wind that has hit the island this weekend, Jesús Martínez has decided to rest for a few days although, he assures, he will soon return to spend the night on his farm. "This Friday I had a terrible night with the wind and I decided to collect the entire harvest, but in a few days, as soon as the remaining watermelons start to ripen, I will be there again."
Potato thefts
These thefts are in addition to others that have been committed on some farms in Teguise since last April and which led the Local Police and the Civil Guard of the municipality to launch a special surveillance device in the cultivation areas, in response to complaints from farmers. According to them, potatoes were being stolen from their land, in quantities that in some cases exceeded 150 kilograms.
In fact, the Civil Guard arrested a suspected thief in mid-June who was taking 154 kilos of potatoes from a farm located in the municipality of Teguise.
Water cuts
Thefts are not the only problem that Jesús Martínez has suffered, but he has also been affected by Inalsa's water cuts. This farmer from Tinajo says that he only has water on his farm on Wednesdays. "They say they are only going to cut it off on Wednesdays and the opposite happens to us, it is the only day we have water."
According to him, he has been suffering these cuts since the heat wave occurred in Lanzarote at the end of June, when Jesús Martínez lost a large part of his harvest. "We lost 3,500 kilos of tomatoes, in addition to the entire harvest of strawberries and lettuce and quite a bit of melons", says this farmer, who believes that if he had had water during those days, "at least the damage would have been mitigated".
Jesús Martínez explains that, since then, he has been irrigating as he can thanks to the cistern he has. "It gives you for two days or so, but it's not the solution," says this man. "And then there are the prices," he adds. "It's absurd that it's the most expensive water in the entire archipelago. And then they cut it off," he concludes.
