The Island Council of La Gomera has acquired in the Spanish peninsula a batch of 2.000 fruit trees, which are prepared and made available to local farmers at cost price, as reported by the chairman of the insular corporation, Casimiro Curbelo. He stresses the important investment that the Gomeran institution has made in the primary sector and within it in the cultivation of fruit.

"The plants have already begun the adaptation in the insular nursery, which is managed by the Council and where they will remain for about two months, so that they can adapt to the peculiarities of the terrain and to the needs of local farmers", Curbelo explains and emphasizes that the Island Council subsidizes the purchase of trees, among which there are oranges, lemons, tangerines, grapefruit, plums, apples, pears, nectarines, peaches, medlars, persimmons, apricots and figs, as well as olive and almond trees.

"This initiative, which joins many others taken by the insular corporation for the recovery of farming land, gives continuity to the campaigns undertaken by the institution in previous years to provide the farmers with affordably priced fruit varieties, which adapt to the peculiarities of different zones of La Gomera and help them renew or make new crop plantations", he says.

Curbelo explains that the Council covers the shipping costs and materials needed for the acclimation of the plants, so that the fruit trees reach the Gomeran farmers' hands in the most optimal conditions for cultivation. He also stresses that the Insular Department of Agriculture, Livestock and Fish supplies the Gomeran farmers an annual average of 12.000 plants to increase the insular production of fruits.

The counselor of agriculture, Emiliano Coello, specifies that a portion of these fruit trees is produced by the Island Council, and this production is supplemented by imports from authorized nurseries located in the Spanish peninsula, such as those carried out recently, in which the sanitary quality of the trees is ensured. For acclimatization and test works the insular institution has two facilities: the experimental farm of Cruz Chiquita, working with tropical and subtropical fruits in San Sebastián de La Gomera in the district of El Molinito, and the nursery of El Cedro, which produces plants for planting areas found on higher altitude and midlands.

For the president of the Island Council, besides encouraging the cultivation of areas where agriculture once prevailed, this measure represents support for increasing the incomes of those who, full or part-time, work on the land.