On March 17, the Government of Andalusia raised the Special Emergency Plan for the Risk of Floods in Andalusia (PERI) to emergency phase, operational situation 1, in view of the weather forecasts. It has been raining almost constantly in many parts of Andalusia for more than two weeks. In fact, after two years of severe drought, the reservoirs in Huelva and Seville have had to release water because they were at full capacity. At the moment, several of them, such as Los Melonares, El Gergal, El Agrio, or Presa de Piedras, are still above 100% of their capacity.
The rains have caused numerous incidents and road closures in the last few hours due to water pools and overflowing streams, and the rise in the level of many rivers has led to the preventive evacuation of residents on the banks of the river Campanillas, in Malaga, as well as the activation of the pre-emergency flood plan in the municipality of La Algaba, in Seville.
This situation has also had an impact on agriculture. Last week, in Cadiz, some greenhouse structures were affected by strong winds. In many areas of Andalusia, it is almost impossible to enter the fields to harvest the crops, and some plantations have been left unprotected.
The situation is also not ideal for the trees, especially in this period of flowering for citrus and stone fruit trees (increasingly less abundant in Andalusia) or nut trees, such as almond trees, of which there are more than 240,000 hectares planted in the autonomous region.
As far as almond trees are concerned, this rain is not having devastating consequences, but since they are in bloom, the subsequent fruit set could be affected," says Rocío López, a technician from the San Antonio Abad de Huelva Cooperative. "We are also 100% certain that this is going to bring diseases. Monilia or anthracnose, which are the most common diseases affecting almond trees in this area, will have a greater impact this year, given the impressive amount of moisture at the moment and the rain that continues to fall on the soil, which is already saturated."
Almond trees in bloom at the end of February.
"The rain in our area has also been accompanied by some hail, but we haven't yet been able to assess the impact of this on the blossom or on the production later on," he says. "We also fear that we won't have a good pollination. Every farm has beehives, but with wind and moisture, the bees cannot do their pollination work," says Rocío.
San Antonio Abad has been harvesting around 200,000 kilos of almonds every season since the decision to diversify its production 6-7 years ago. "The cooperative was formed in 1960 and, despite its members being mainly cereal growers, a few years ago we looked for more profitable alternatives and almonds fitted in very well with our activity, to the point that we were able to make the machinery we already had for olives compatible with almonds."
"Last year, we closed the season with an average price of 4.20 €/kilo, and this year this price could climb even higher, depending on the consequences on the production of this period of rain."