Farmers are concerned about the appearance of fungi and crop losses in the Ebro.

Godall"Today, concern for agricultural lands is taking a backseat, because the evil is inside our homes," explains Elda Roda, a resident of Godall, a town that was a bustle of people carrying tools to remove mud from the ground, clean warehouses, remove furniture, and assess the ravine. But this doesn't stop those who make their living from agriculture from also being on alert. Most farmers in the area have been unable to access their farms to conduct a precise assessment of the damage, but they already sense that the rains have destroyed large areas.

The episode has damaged infrastructure in the fields: roads, banks, irrigation structures, and retaining walls. Many rural roads have been rendered impassable. Landslides and ground movements have altered the profile of the farms. "The elderly always said that when it rains, old deeds come out, because the water ends up making its way through the old ravines, even though agricultural activity has leveled fields and modified the course of the old streams," explains Arnau Ralda, a farmer from Godall. "I have a seventy-day farm in the municipality of Mas de Barberans, which has been left unrecognizable; the water has opened a gap and swept away five hundred-year-old olive trees, including the vines and roots," he comments.

"I've never seen anything like this," adds Rafael Verdiell, who has also suffered damage to his crops, while calling on the government and local institutions to do everything necessary to ensure that aid arrives and infrastructure can be rebuilt "as soon as possible." "Aid needs to be provided swiftly, and mechanisms need to be provided to rebuild banks, roads, and agricultural structures," Ralda also demands. Authorities are already working together to assess the damage, and the government has announced that aid will be provided. But the challenge is immense in finding medium- and long-term solutions to mitigate the effects caused by the worsening of these weather events.

Fields that look like ravines

"This year we were coming off an optimistic olive campaign, with a production forecast of two and a half million kilos of oil, which is the equivalent of about fourteen million kilos of olives," says Isabel Casadó, manager of the Aceites del Campo de Santa Bárbara cooperative, which brings together more than 800 farmers. The Montsià plain is one of the country's main oil-producing areas, with varieties such as Sevillenca, Fraga, and Picuda, marketed under the Baix Ebre-Montsià DOP quality seal. But with Sunday's rain, the good omens have turned sour.

Casadó asserts that many farms look more like ravines than agricultural fields. It's only been two weeks since farmers kicked off the olive harvest, which is increasingly beginning due to rising temperatures that hasten fruit ripening and also to respond to demand from the gourmet market, which seeks oils with herbaceous aromas and fruity flavors. They will have to suspend work this week. "With the roads damaged and so much ponded water, it will be difficult to access the fields for several days," he warns. If the weather clears up in the coming days and a dry breeze blows, the harvest can be saved, but if the humidity continues, the quality of the olives will suffer. "It's easy for fungi to appear, which, in the case of olives, ends up rotting the inside and rendering the harvest unusable," explains Verdiell.

This is a widespread concern among farmers in the southern Terres de l'Ebre region, who fear that the rains, combined with those of the previous weekend, will also ruin the citrus harvest, which is predominant in the extreme south of the area affected by the downpours. The storm has been a shock that leaves one question unanswered: how long will the farmers be able to resist such extreme phenomena? "We have a very resilient population," Casadó comments, "but it's necessary that whoever can lend a hand, because more times like this will leave the sector close to the abyss," he warns.