As the chilli and zucchini harvest in the Yaqui Valley starts, producers hope that this will be a good year, especially in prices and weather, which would allow them to recover from the slump they went through in the previous cycle due to these two factors, the most devastating of which were the frosts earlier this year.
The president of the Vegetable Growers Association of Yaqui and Mayo, Carlos Alberto Esquer Lopez announced that the rains in the months of September and October were of great benefit so the farmers could schedule their crops and even use less irrigation, thus lowering operation costs for them at the end of the crop.
He specified that the health conditions in the valley had been maintained in the previous cycle and that they expected to keep said conditions in this planting cycle.
He also mentioned that they had had many complications in the last cycle because of the frosts, mainly for cucurbits, tomatoes, peppers and some watermelon; problems that, they hope, won't arise during the current 2013-2014 period as that would make it three consecutive years that have been ravaged by frost.
Esquer Lopez recalled that a total of about 10,000 vegetables were planted in the Yaqui Valley this year, and that it is during the month of December when the crops begin to generalize in most plantations, tunnels and greenhouses.
Source: TRIBUNA