There are farmers who are increasingly interested in not putting “all their eggs in one basket”. Producers who explore less traditional crops in search of market niches that offer greater demand for their productions. This is the case of aromatic and medicinal plants, which have a growing need due to a greater concern for health and beauty.
One of the ones that is working best is the lavandin. The advantage of this plant is that once the most delicate phase, which is implantation, is over, it is easy to handle and does not require excessive care. “Once implanted, all you have to do is dig, it is an easy crop to manage that is planted at this time until March and even April and is harvested in summer, from July to September,” says Javier de Fuentes, a farmer with more than 20 organic hectares dedicated to this crop in Bercero (Valladolid) and nine years of experience in this plant.
Manuel Fradejas has also opted for this crop with which he has been growing for eight years. This farmer from Villalbarba (Valladolid) after starting with three dry hectares, now has nine. After meeting some farmers from Guadalajara, he decided to plant lavandin because the profitability of traditional crops was low. “The most complicated thing is the initial investment and that you have to make sure you have a good implantation, which is very important. The main thing is that the earth is not wet and that after it rains, you even have to be prepared to provide the water if necessary,” explains Fradejas. Currently, half of the cultivated surface of aromatics, close to 6,000 hectares, is concentrated in Castilla-La Mancha, the main producer in the country.
Currently, this plant is in high demand since its oil is a widely used product as a base to fix other essences used in cosmetics, soaps, air fresheners, detergents, etc. It is also used in the pharmaceutical industry due to its properties (aromatherapy, phytotherapy, homeopathy). “The main handicap is that the first year you have to make a high investment to buy the plant. You have to put approximately 10,000 plants per hectare and each one costs about 18 cents,” explains De Fuentes. The positive part is that this investment lasts between 12 and 14 years and in all that time there is no need to buy a plant again. The first year, it does not give anything, it is mowed to gain more strength, the second year we can already sell half of what has been a standard production and the third year is already in full production. For Manuel Fradejas, you have to be “careful when purchasing the plant as there have been some fungal problems in France.”
Despite the heavy investment it is a profitable crop, the numbers come out. The prices once the oil has been extracted and distilled are 30 euros per liter for the Super variety and 22.50 euros per liter for the Grosso variety, one of the most common. The average productions that are obtained are about 80 liters per hectare for the Super and 100 liters per hectare for the Grosso. The possibilities offered by this type of crop, such as lavandin or opium poppy, has led INEA, the University School of Agricultural Engineering of Valladolid, to include these crops in a study, carried out in collaboration with the Diputación, on the 16 alternative crops that can suppose an improvement of the profitability for the exploitations of the farmers of the zone. Production costs for organic lavandin are around 400-500 euros per hectare and conventional between 500 and 600 euros. To this must be added 6 euros per liter of distillation cost. These expenses include initial planting amortization on a 14-year plan.
The machinery required for this crop is the usual one except for the one needed for harvesting. A normally adapted corn chopper is used for optimal harvesting. Normally the companies that are in charge of distillation offer this collection service, although there are farmers who also do it themselves, adapting their machinery.
Seconds in poppy
Few people know it but Spain is the second legal opium producer in the world after Australia. In the 2015/16 campaign, some 12,000 authorized hectares were planted throughout the peninsula. Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, La Rioja and the Basque Country are the main producers.
The world surrounding this crop is very opaque, a special permit from the Ministry of Agriculture is needed to cultivate opium poppy and it is forbidden to divulge the exact location of the plantations.
The part of the bulb or capsule of the flower that contains the alkaloids is used in the pharmaceutical industry to obtain opium from which morphine, codeine, papaverine and noscapine will be extracted later through industrial processes. All these active substances are used in treatments for alleviate the different degrees of diseases with ailments of various levels. The demand is growing due, above all, to the fact that there are currently a greater number of people who have chronic diseases with severe ailments. “It is a crop that is implanted only under contract, therefore, the authorized company is the one that is dedicated to the collection and sale of the product,” explains Laura Cobos, agronomist engineer and technical manager of Alternative Crops at INEA. This company provides the farmer with a field technician who “helps you and collaborates with you during the cycle. They buy all the production you take out and the income is insured,” says Cobos.
Poppy seeds, which do not contain alkaloids, are used in the bakery and confectionery industry for the manufacture of sweets and bread.
It is a plant that supports low spring temperatures well, is resistant to drought and presents problems in soils with a capacity for flooding. It likes land with a high organic matter content.
The main tasks of this type of cultivation, planting and harvesting, are carried out by the company authorized in Spain for the production of opium poppy. The sowing and harvesting machinery is adapted for this type of crop, it is specific machinery. “On the other hand, the other tasks such as land preparation and cultural work are carried out by the farmer of the plot with his own conventional machinery,” says the person responsible for preparing the study on Alternative Crops carried out by INEA and the Diputación de Valladolid. The production costs are very similar to other irrigated crops and another advantage that it presents is that there are usually no pests that constitute a problem.
Excellent rotation alternative
The opium poppy is presented as an alternative to introduce it in rotation with a cereal, due to its taproot, it explores the deepest layers of the soil, recycling those nutrients that the previous crop has not used. Improves the soil structure by performing natural tillage.
The preparatory work on the land depends to a large extent on the crop that precedes the opium poppy, but as a general rule we will look for an optimal planting bed, very fine and leveled soil, which we will achieve with a mold pass, later we will pass the cultivator and to finish the rotary. One of the characteristics of the poppy seed is its small size, therefore, the sowing depth should not exceed 2 centimeters, since if this happened, the emergence would be difficult. Although it is a plant that resists drought well, it is cultivated irrigated, its greatest water needs being before flowering.
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