Ovibeja: “The fair is a kind of Ronaldo that everyone knows”.
Rui Garrido, President of South Sheep Breeders Association (ACOS), in an interview on the 36th edition of the fair: "The Ovibeja is a kind of Ronaldo that everyone knows".
The 36th Ovibeja is focused on climate change in agriculture and debates already scheduled will to identify what is changing in terms of climate and how agriculture can mitigate the negative effects already are taking place. Rui Garrido, the chairman of the board of ACOS (to esquerda na foto, with Claudino Matos, the Executive Director), the organizer has always been the Ovibeja, this edition of the fair has several new features including the fact that, for the first time, Commemorative performing 25 April, organized by the Chamber (this year in partnership with ACOS), go take place in Ovibeja, at night 24, with Antonio Zambujo.
This is the 36th Ovibeja. The organization still manages to innovate when drawing the fair?
Every year we try to innovate anything, but always we want to keep what has been the moth Ovibeja and that has to do with the fact that it is a fair open, an agricultural fair, but has other activities related to the business world that may be of interest to the general public. This costume of Ovibeja today is already a known brand throughout the country. There are still a few days I was in Porto and when a certain large commercial area said that we were Beja our interlocutor then spoke of Ovibeja. Everyone knows Ovibeja, which leaves us full of pride.
Is Ronaldo the Alentejo?
Sim, It is a kind of Ronaldo Alentejo that everyone knows the country and even abroad. It is an event already well established. But you can always innovate and this year, Among other things, no topic inovámos. Every year Ovibeja has a central theme and this year is related to climate change that are taking place and its effects, specifically, in the farming.
These changes already feel, de facto, in agricultural terms and here in the region?
Just see the lack of water. We are again facing a dry year, there is talk of drought, There are areas of the country already classified as extreme drought and others to go there. Unfortunately we are facing a situation with three years in a row when it rains very little in winter, raining, sometimes, at times when such was rarely happens. We feel that this walk different than it was. Picking up in our motto that "no men without agriculture and there is no agriculture without men", our job is to feed the people and the base that has to be agriculture. Obviously when we intensify agricultural production is necessary to mitigate some of the harsh effects of the intensification, although much of our activities produce positive effects on the environment, namely, the productions that make carbon sequestration, as the forest, the pastures, etc.
On the table today are many criticisms of monocultures, notably the olive grove.
Is true. But not only. There are also critical to extensive livestock, etc. , that is why, of an open form, information, we will seek to address these issues here in Ovibeja.
Considers that the olive grove culture, as is being done in Alentejo, in extensive and contiguous areas, It is not harmful to the environment and biodiversity?
I believe that this is a false problem, not just me but the majority of farmers, entrepreneurs and technicians who know the subject. Before there was talk of wheat monoculture, now is the olive. But the reality is that there is no such monoculture. The olive grove, the perimeter alqueva, It represents 60 and as percent of the area irrigated, or about 60/70 hectares. The Alentejo has nearly three million hectares of utilized agricultural area, just talking about monoculture in terms of region is very doubtful. Speaking monoculture are people who do not know the cultural occupation and geography of the area and go here in the national road from Serpa to Ferreira and look to one side to the other and only see olive or almond. So they speak in monoculture. If you walk half a dozen kilometers to one side or the other this monoculture disappears.
The olive grove uses less water and less pesticides
And what the olive behavior regarding water consumption?
If not for the olive grove was not possible to make the extension of irrigation Alqueva, since the original plan foresaw a higher consumption 6 thousand cubic meters per hectare. The olive grove, it spends only half that, allowed to make possible this extension. Otherwise it was not possible. We are talking about a well so scarce that is water and a culture that spends very little water in relation to other. So I do not understand how we speak of these things with such great ignorance. But there is more: the olive groves as well as spend less water also consumes less fertilizers and less pesticides.
It is also false the idea that, due to the amount of chemical used, The groves are authentic deserts biologically?
This is completely false. If we compare the olive culture with other cultures of our irrigation, and tomato, corn, onion, Cultures are spending more agrochemicals than the grove. And even copper, one of the fungicides that more is spent in the olive grove, It is also allowed to use in organic production. On the other hand, there is no olive grove in the central range of olive trees is not covered with vegetation, which functions as buffer zone, which do not apply chemicals, Since the herbicides are applied only on the line of trees. In annual crops herbicides are used throughout the growing area. In conclusion, with olive spend less and less fertilizers and agrochemicals, at the same time, olive groves contribute very positively to carbon sequestration. You talk about the way olive groves as you often hear is something that, years, we walk here and technicians are, It makes us a big mess.
In recent times there has been much talk of the death of thousands birds in the olive groves arising from the night of olive picking. We're talking about a real or de facto, also here, there is some confusion?
I do not know if it happens, also just learned that the media. Do some robins asleep in the middle of olive groves? Do not know. The big sleep of thrushes has always been mounted in and then go to the olive groves to eat, but if some sleep on the olive trees and the machines the catch, I no longer know. However, the machines of buckling of this type of olive groves have some scouts who make the trees vibrate. The birds to feel this vibration-astonished and fly, avoiding being caught by this. Yet, it is true that this happens, matter know what your size, in order to be able to find solutions that can drastically reduce or cancel this problem.
Still in the field of climate change, there is talk of the decline of the assembled, one of the riches of the Alentejo. What is the situation?
The assembled, the result of several factors that negatively influence your maintenance is, in some areas, unfortunately in decline. It is a process of combining disease, cultural practices and where climate change also have their share of influence. There are three winters that virtually no rain and this is very bad for the trees. The fact that no rain fades mounted and makes them more vulnerable.
All these issues we talked about will be the subject of discussions to be held in Ovibeja?
Sim. And for this we are inviting experts who will tell us about the various topics, trying to relate these two problems: the agriculture and climate change and environment. We want to see how, we too, farmers, We can help mitigate the negative effects that contribute to climate change.
“We will have a full fair”. For this edition of the fair as has been the demand for spaces on the part of exhibitors?
There has been much demand for exhibitors, more than last year. It is a symptom that the fair is interesting for exhibitors, that farming is alive and it is healthy. We will have a full fair, the same pattern of recent years with the Institutional Pavilion, the area of ​​livestock, Fertile Earth Pavilion dedicated to olive groves and the 9th International Competition of Extra Virgin Olive Oil, as it has been customary, and an exhibition on climate change. Let's keep beside a tent with small taverns and snacks such as Crafts Pavilion and Sing. We have here, again, the singers of the choral groups of Lisbon, once again visit the Ovibeja sing in the train. For them it is an already indispensable visit.
The International Competition of Extra Virgin Olive Oils, organized by Ovibeja and the Agricultural Credit, It continues to assert itself year after year?
Sim. Our contest again be among the top three international world contests. It's us, the Contest of the Fair of Jaen and the Competition Mario Solinas, from Madrid, which is organized by the International Olive Council. Nowadays a scoring factor of any oil to be considered one of the world's best has to do with the fact that it won awards in one of these three contests. This tells well the importance that our competition has reached.
Just spoke of the strength of the agricultural sector, but the lack of rain may jeopardize the productions this year in the Alentejo, given the scarcity of water in the dams. What the situation is already live at this time (end of March)?
The annual crops and pastures, as cereals, although with little rain, They have remained, now beginning to take the first signs of drought. But there is little moisture in the soil which can compromise the spring crops, rainfed. This year the contribution to water reserves has also been zero, are holes, as dams, etc. So the expectation is very high for this spring and if it does not rain more, or very little rain, we will have a bad agricultural year. In terms of irrigation, dams which are connected to alqueva continue to be supplied and will have bought water EDIA, which will mean higher costs for farmers.
And Alqueva, if it does not rain, has sufficient reserves?
You can maintain and supply to the system. At this time, Alqueva still has reservations for three years. However, as I said, expenditure on culture will experience a major increase, is the higher cost of water, is the need to apply larger quantities of this production factor.
If there were Alqueva the situation would be much harder?
It would be much more dramatic. As it is known, most of the water from the dams of our region, It can now be supplied by Alqueva. If it did not exist, beyond the dryland problem, we would also have the problem of irrigation, since all these confining dams have no reservations for the irrigation campaign.
Regardless of whether consume more water, or pay it more expensive, It is far better to have water to irrigate.
In recent years they have not heard many claims of farmers, contrary to what was previously. This means that there is more stability and profitability in the sector?
The situation is this: some agricultural sectors in recent years have been stabilized and prices have allowed farms viable, notably the olive grove, we were talking about just. But when we talk about the dry Alentejo, mainly occupied by agricultural holdings, the problem is quite different. The market value, lambs and calves, It is not very different from there 10 or 15 year old. An exception to the pig alentejano, of montanheira, as the industry continues to hams and value this type of production. In my opinion, most agricultural farms in our region only if they enable dimension. There are also irrigated crops whose market prices do not enable their productions, as is the case of cereals or oilseeds. That is why, nowadays, many farmers are turning to permanent crops, such as olive or almond, because investment in annual crops is often not feasible. In other words, and responding directly to the question, there are sectors that are in good health, but other than.
The price of water is, in this case the rain shortage, an important component in the pricing?
It is fundamental, because we spend more water, everything changes. remember, however, the Alqueva water price fell slightly last year. This was based on a study prepared by edia in which it proved that the company remained viable by lowering the price of water but increasing the irrigated area, through economies of scale. This allowed the Minister of Agriculture download, at various levels, the water price. We would like also lowered a bit more because it is an important factor in the profitability of farms.
Celebrations of 25 April will be in Ovibeja
This year's celebrations 25 April in Beja will take place in Ovibeja. It is the signal that relations between the Chamber and the ACOS are stretched this time without any problems?
They are very good. Our relationship has always been with the Chamber of mutual collaboration and cooperation and must remain so, because otherwise it would make sense. Also because we are partners in the management of Fairs and Exhibitions Park Manuel de Castro and Brito, it has to be administered together. Thus, and, to programarmos all the works necessary for the maintenance and conservation of the Park, we met quite a few times with this executive.
But it is the first time that the House and Ovibeja jointly organize the celebrations of 25 April.
Exactly. This year we remember that it made no sense to have a show here on 24, which is when the show begins, and the Chamber organize other in a different place to mark the 25 April, causing people to scatter on both sides. By agreement between the parties, the celebration of this date far will be at the fairgrounds. The Board cooperates with us, paying for part of the night spectacle 24, with Antonio Zambujo, an artist of the earth. We open the doors of the fair from 22 hours to all who want to come watch, without paying ticket. The firework itself will be here next. The celebrations 25 April are thus concentrated in Ovibeja, where the mayor himself will make a short speech around midnight. I think everything will work well.
This also means that some wounds of the past, by some farmers, regarding the 25 April 1974, They are definitely healed?
I think so, it's all peaceful. this decision, for our part, It was taken in a direction of assembly of steel and has a consensus. It would make no sense to disperse efforts and people.
This Ovibeja will take place in pre-election period since the European elections are in late May. The expectation is that, also again, here big parade of the political class?
We are expecting that. For many years this has been going on, since the Ovibeja already part of the annual tour of the political class, even if, last year, we had to register a lack, which was the prime minister, who did not want us present with his presence. But we hope that this year will. We like that they come here because it is a sign that the Ovibeja is on schedule and because Ovibeja always been and will continue to be a forum where they discuss the problems that plague us every time. The fact that the political class, government and opposition, visit us, also allows us to better informed on various issues of concern in, present our views and our claims, both agriculture and the region. A ACOS Platform integrates Alentejo, claiming better accessibility to the region, and this will be another topic to discuss with visitors in.
The Alentejo Platform will be on Ovibeja?
Will be, here you will have your space that will also be a moment of affirmation and claim the region as, moreover, the Ovibeja always been.
