In the Ziarreta farmhouse in Bergara we have met with the local producer, Iñigo Gabilondo, the producer of the Dolphin Squadron project, Nere Aspiazu, and Leire Ibarretxe, dynamic technician of Biolur. All three are members of Bioearth’s horticultural team, which began collecting data in the face of last year’s bad harvest: the questionnaire was sent to eighteen agroecological horticulturists and the data collected has come hand in hand to the appointment they have associated with us.

In his study, Biolur highlights that the weather in 2024 was more rainy than usual, especially in the spring, with 25% more rain than the average in May and between 25% and 50% more in June. In terms of temperature, just last year’s May was 1ºC colder than the average and from June to August warmer than the average, between 0.5ºC-1ºC. The effect of these weather variables on horticulture has been explained by Ibarretxe as follows: "Pumpkin is grown in San Isidro (May 15) but last year it was introduced by many at the beginning of July because it rained, rained and rained during the planting season. Especially the months of May and June were colder, with less light and much more rain. These three elements are key and he did not work until he entered in July."

In addition to the problems of cultivation, Ibarretxe explains that there have also been problems of reproduction due to the weather: "In pumpkins, depending on the conditions of temperature and clarity that exist, when determining the sex of the flower, the plant will resort to male or female. And if many males come out and few females, there will be few pumpkins. This also happened in 2024. July was quite formal, but August and September were again very fresh, very rainy and dark." Gabilondo also confirms the fluctuation of temperature and light: they also planted beans late last year because it was cold, and the pepper harvest was also delayed a lot. Aspiazu also highlights last year’s petral weather: "If, despite the late planting, the autumn comes from warm or clear, the plant knows how to maintain the cycle, but it came with that beginning of autumn, it could not." A valley is coming: "We have noticed that with the plantations that were carried out in the summer of 2024, so much has happened: the cabbage and leeks have gone very badly, and these crops are very important in terms of income."

Aspiazu also recalls other problems they experienced as a result of wet and warm weather: fungi and pests.

They received 55% of the harvest

For the bioterrestrial study, eight crops relevant to the producers were selected. Aspiazu explains that: "We divided these crops into two groups: some are summer crops and others are for storage, so that they last until the whole winter and the beginning of spring. Therefore, the storage cultures are made in very large quantities and, as a result, we are highly dependent on them. For example, we have until March to put the pumpkin in the baskets of consumer groups." The eight crops selected for the study are: onion, lettuce, beans and tomato, which are summer crops; and onion, potato, pumpkin and beans, which are for storage.

In total, they harvested an average of 55% in 2024 compared to previous years. The members of Bioterra highlight that these crops are the most important for the Ortuceros: “It can be more than 40% of the income of the whole year.” Among these eight crops, potatoes are the least harvested, 37% compared to the other years. And the tomato is the one they collected the most, 73% compared to the other years.

Among the eight crops studied, those destined for storage were particularly poor. Aspiazu explains that: "It is precisely the storage crops that condition us all year round, because if the summer lettuce is bad its effect stays there, but these storage crops condition the baskets and the sale until March of the following year." Among the storage crops, pumpkin was the highest harvested crop, “but that’s also 49%, so all in a similar way,” Aspiazu said.

Greenhouses, expensive solutions

According to Ibarretxe, a conclusion has been drawn since last summer: “We’ve found that the more greenhouses we have, the more farmers have freed the problem.” Aspiazu explains: "In fact, what the greenhouse guarantees is that we will be able to work regardless of the weather." But the greenhouse also has its own obstacles, as Ibarretxe points out: "At the meeting of the horticulturists of Bioterra they mentioned that there is also a problem with greenhouses, because the winds are getting harder and harder, which makes it more complicated to install the greenhouse: you have to hire insurance or install windbreakers, which is another investment." Gabilondo adds that the crops for storage are not grown in the greenhouse because they cover a large area, such as pumpkins, potatoes and beans. Gabilondo himself used the greenhouse last year to compensate for the poor harvest in the garden, but explains that the space in the greenhouse is limited and that the consequences of the "bad weather" in the spring of last year have been chained to the spring of this year: "The leeks took the mildew in the fall and the leeks of all the banks remained small, they did not develop enough. Faced with this, we had to decide whether to remove the leech or replant it; and as a result, either to collect the leech late or to have fewer leeches. To have a guaranteed crop of leeks, I had to plant it in the greenhouse and so I mortgaged some of the land in the greenhouse for the leeks and as a result, in the spring I have less room to grow other things. So our production has also been affected by last year’s poor harvest at the beginning of this spring.”

Being in a hurry and not harvesting

Aspiazu explains that last year’s poor harvest has highlighted the vulnerability of many projects: "Most of these projects are just going to cover the salary, and they're holding on to a year like this in a hurry, and if another year like this comes, I think a lot of projects would be in a hurry." Gabilondo has continued: "The problem is that we don't have the capacity to make the mattress. So if a bad year comes or you break the greenhouse, you go to the negative number right away." The reader may recall that in 2021 the Digina study was carried out to numerate the working conditions of agroecological horticulturists, in collaboration between three actors: Biolur, University of the Basque Country and Council of Agriculture and Ecological Food of the Basque Country. And it appeared that at that time the horticulturists earned an average of 14,990 euros a year, less than the 16,800 euros that the Social Charter considered worthy. In addition, they measured that horticulturists include on average 10% more hours of work than the agreement says, and in the words of the study's authors, they were "very short" in this number because several of their daily tasks were not counted.

Ibarretxe highlights that horticulture is a "real economy": "They sell what they produce and live on it. Many other jobs, both in the industry and so on, are fully intervened and supported, as opposed to horticulture." It recalls that the Duina study showed that in the case of organic horticulturists, only 5.42% of their total income is direct subsidies. And he continued: “We don’t claim to live off subsidies, but because of the way public money is used, we ask that it be used to help those who really need it.” Gabilondo emphasizes that we are talking about the "primary need", food. Aspiazu has rounded up: "If we are to guarantee the food here, the productive projects here must be maintained, supported, promoted..."

Agroecological horticulturists work with the commitment to feed the people, and since they have not been able to offer as much as they want, they say it has been a "complicated year". Aspiazu speaks of: "The baskets in the consumer groups are based on a two-way commitment: consumers commit to a weekly basket and producers commit to be able to bring at least a minimum amount of vegetables every week. In our case, we have received 20% of the pumpkin compared to previous years, and the same with many other small things. I have noticed that our basket has been poorer this year and not because of bad will, but because we have not been able to carry it better. I want to thank those who take the weekly basket because they support projects like ours more than the administration. They have a very personal commitment, people have kept it well."

What to do looking ahead?

Ibarretxe says that in the group of horticulturists of Biotierra they reflected on what to do with these results of the study, how to deal with them, with the aim of making the horticultural projects more livable and viable. "The first proposal that came out was to develop tools to ease the workload. In other words, the first demand was not economic." Aspiazu has set as a positive example the Desert Relief System in operation in Debagoiena [which Garazi Zabaleta has just explained in this article]. In the Desert Relief Project, a person has been hired between the municipalities of the valley and the Rural Development Agency to work in the desert. Aspiazu has seen the following advantages for the system: "The work hours of this worker are distributed among the projects of the garden of the valley and, as he often goes to each project, he knows perfectly the march of each one, for example, where the water intake is, what the environment is like, etc. This allows you to perform the replacement perfectly from one day to the next when there is a low and the same during the holiday season."

The second issue that came up in the group of horticulturists of Biotierra was the request of subsidies to the administration. The situation that has been declared a "natural disaster" and in which the administration has channelled subsidies to those affected comes to mind. Ibarretxe explains that such subsidies are not intended for gardeners: "At our regular annual meeting with the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa we put the issue on the table and they put the ball on our roof to measure how this loss should be assessed." Ibarretxe explains: "In an ecological garden, the more diversity there is, the more difficult it is to quantify how many kilos of each crop you take and what has been the average over the last five years... Also, the smaller the project, the more you don’t have time to take a detailed measurement, the more you’re at work.” In fact, he emphasizes that each organic horticulturist cultivates an average of 30 crops per year. Aspiazu continued: “When it comes to monoculture, it’s easier to quantify. That’s why there are sectors that are in another league and we are not there. When we’re short, it’s harder to get our voices across.” But other criteria are being studied, such as the granting of income subsidies to those whose main activity is cultivation in such difficult years.

A third line to continue working was also launched among the Bioterrestrial horticulturists: to continue training and technical improvement. Ibarretxe explains how they do the training: "When we detect that the same problem occurs in several homes, we provide training to address it." Aspiazu has highly valued the collective work carried out at Biolur: "During our meetings in the horticultural team, we decide what we want to work on. Conferences, courses, etc. are organized accordingly. This is a way of strengthening the network. We have been working on the Escort project for twelve years and I like to look back from time to time and reflect on what changed factors we would not be where we are now. And if Biolur were to disappear from our career I don’t know if we would be here today: feeling online, accompanied, protected, for me it has been very valuable, especially at the beginning." Gabilondo has continued: "I've been running the farm that my parents owned for seven years. Among the producers of biolands we share a lot of information, it’s not that image of closeness that usually exists among farmers, who put their prices in their garden. We share it with each other.”

The bad year of the past year has served Aspiazu to confirm the model he chose in the crop: "Cultivating diversity has its own difficulty, but in a situation like this it provides sustenance and a certain balance. If I only worked the pumpkin this year, I wouldn't have had anything. This fact gives reason to this way of working, we have continued to feed even in this very bad year, even though it is poorer."

As every spring, this year the planting and planting of summer crops in the garden has begun with hope. "This year, yes! “He wants Barry. "I want to think that the sum of a lot of small details made last year a very bad year," Aspiazu dispels fears about the future. Ibarretxe recalls that in the past, requests related to time were made to celestial beings and after joking about the recovery of rites, he turns to society: "It is necessary for citizens and producers to form a network and create complicity. Agroecological cultivation works directly in relation to the land, it is totally dependent on the climate and those who suffer the first impact of any incident that occurs there are agroecological growers. Society is looking at a different place. The theme should be placed on the table and remember that it is our food that we will eat. We all have to take responsibility for that."