Date Published: 17/02/2021
ARCHIVED - Experimental cultivation of black truffles in Murcia Region yielding good results
ARCHIVED ARTICLE
The experimental agricultural product is co-financed via the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD)
The regional Minister for Water, Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and the Environment, Antonio Luengo, paid a visit to the Agrarian Demonstration Center 'Las Nogueras de Arriba', located in the hamlet of Los Prados de Caravaca de la Cruz, on Wednesday, to see the progress of an experimental agriculture project featuring black truffles.
The black truffles experimental plot in the Centro de Demonstración Agraria Las Nogueras de Arriba was planted in February 2014 and harvesting began in the 2018-2019 campaign.
The harvesting season using trained sniffer dogs,runs from December 15 to March 15, and this year the collection per hectare has doubled, going from 10 to 20 kilos.
The good results of the experimental cultivation of black truffle offer new possibilities for development in unpopulated areas of the Region which have struggled to convince farming families to remain in areas traditionally dedicated to low-income non-irrigated crops such as wheat, almonds, carobs and olives.
The minister is enthusiastic about the possibilites offered by this crop, as “it is a productive alternative for dry crops in the higher areas, which have poor limestone soils in the Altiplano and Northwest comarcas to which the mycorrhized oaks and gall oaks are well adapted,”and the objective is "to bring technology transfer to the areas that need it most, due to the fact that they have fewer agricultural alternatives and lower cultivation margins due to their extreme weather, and also suffer a marked depopulation".
He added that "it is intended to offer economically viable options that allow the diversification of traditional crops, whose profitability is low," stressing the need to "reverse the trend of depopulation of rural mountain areas in general, since it implies the abandonment of traditional agricultural and livestock activity, putting at risk the natural heritage that its inhabitants have managed to preserve."
“We have examples in Spain such as the one in the province of Teruel, an example of the potential of this forest crop and the possibility of developing and diversifying economic activities around it, either directly (mycotourism, agrotourism in general, gastronomy and catering) as well as indirect (supermarkets, shops, sports tourism, among others), in addition to the direct income derived from the productivity of the crop ”, added Luengo.
The project is part of the Rural Development Program 2014-2020 of the Region of Murcia, co-financed by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Community of Murcia.