I knew that Almería has a desert, famous thanks to movies filmed in it; they were the movies belonged to the style named “Spaghetti western”.
But, I did not know that in Almería there are many plants named “Chumberas” (prickly pear). Yes, this kind of plant does not need a lot of water and it find in Almería a good place for growing.
A plant which does not seem to be nice for me and, however, it is an important plant, because it is abble to produce a lot of Bioethanol --Could generate up to 96 million liters per year--. This is the result of a study by the Polytecnic University of Madrid (UPM), about this plant, a plant species of the family of cacti. Almería has a maximum area suitable for cultivation of 100,000 hectares.
"Chumberas", Almería, Southeastern Spain, by Fernando, at flickr.com
"Chumbera", Almería, Southeastern Spain, by Paco López, at flickr.com
The researchers at the UPM have drawn maps theme that could be useful for future business.
The Agroenergética Group of the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM), in collaboration with experts from the Experimental Station of the Palmerillas-Cajamar Foundation has managed to evaluate the full potential of the prickly pear crop and the estimated optimal location of plants processing of this raw material requirements and technical constraints considering, as revealed by the UPM.
To carry out the research, which has been published in Israel Journal of Plant Sciences, followed a sequential approach methodologies supported by GIS (Geographic Information Systems) for the Andalusian province. They located the current regular crops of prickly pear and related to agro-climatic characteristics.
Also defined requirements and crop restrictions then work with geo-referenced databases of climate, soil, land use, natural spaces and communication channels, based on field data and bibliographic biomass productivity of prickly pear and yields ethanol.
The prickly pear is a plant of American origin showing a remarkable adaptation to warm-arid climates where other conventional agricultural species can not be grown extensively. The prickly pear can grow with great efficiency and little water, as their limit humidity is around 40% and requires annual rainfall of 400-600 mm to develop optimally.
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"Chumberas", Almería, East of Spain, by JL Palacios, at flickr.com
It is present in Almeria from the sixteenth century and the area under cultivation rose above the 10,000 hectares in the 50s of XX century. Thus the fruits and stems, blades characteristically thick flattened and juicy-green can be used industrially for the production of bioethanol. Other regions in Spain in which is located the prickly pear are Granada and Malaga, in Andalusia, Murcia, Balearic and Canary Islands.
"Higos chumbos en Albaicin", Granada, by Landahlauts, at flickr.com
Till soon, kind regards,
Luis.
Sponsored by Costaluz Lawyers.
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