I come from a rural family in the Axarquía area (Málaga), which is the southern region of Spain where tropical fruits are grown. My grandparents and great-grandparents were already farmers and since I was little I have grown up surrounded by nature, agricultural fields, orchards, fruit trees and crops. In my adolescence I had the opportunity to go to university, where I had to combine my studies in Industrial Technical Engineering with helping my father with agricultural tasks. At the end of my course I worked as an engineer for some years in different industries in the area. However, when I started my own family I decided to take an exciting step and follow in the footsteps of my father in order to be a great farmer. Engineering studies have helped me to have a different point of view than the traditional farmer. I think I have a greater focus on the efficiency of processes such as water use, plantation design or organization of agricultural work. Currently we are a team made up of several family members and workers where my work is the administration of the daily tasks of the farm which we all carry out according to needs. My accumulated experience in the cultivation of subtropical fruits constantly caused that acquaintances and friends with farms asked me for advice and help to optimize production on their farms. This is mainly due to the professional cultivation of tropical fruits such as mangos and avocados being relatively recent in Europe. In 2017, due to the high volume of requests, I decided to found GESTROPIC as a tool to be able to offer a better service to those who needed it. The main purpose of this company is to manage the “Refijo” and “Marroquino” family farms, as well as helping small farmers in the area to manage their tropical fruit farms. GESTROPIC also has an important focus on training farmers to pass on the acquired knowledge of good agricultural practices to them. This is achieved by periodically conducting courses and field days to teach them how to grow avocados and mangos in a sustainable and efficient way. Being able to send our fruits directly to each final consumer and thus being able to send top quality fresh fruit is what has led us to enter CrowdFarming. The success of a good quality in our farm is to distribute it as directly as possible to the final consumer.

The Refijo farm is located a few meters from the Viñuela Reservoir. It is a farm that has belonged to my family for more than 20 years and that we have transformed to cultivate avocados and mangoes for the past 7 years. In total, 5 relatives work on the farm with the additional support of workers when necessary. On this farm I am the second generation that has worked there. I have put a lot of focus on modernizing cultivation techniques to make them more efficient, but keeping some of the traditional ways of my grandparents who always dedicated themselves to agriculture. It is an area close to very beautiful places, such as the Sierra Tejeda and Almijara natural park and the Viñuela Lake itself. To offer fruit with a guaranteed quality and in accordance with our values, the current management of the crop is ecological, although we are still in the early stages of conversion. Although previously we were already doing environmentally friendly agriculture, we decided to move to organic farming to contribute to the sustainability of the planet and protect the local environment. At the beginning the land was cultivated through traditional agriculture to be able to treat pests if necessary and thus favor the development of the trees, once the trees grew enough we opted for the organic certification in which we are in the process. I personally believe that organic farming is the future of agriculture, healthy, sustainable and beneficial for all. The care of the farm is carried out with two or three people depending on the season and the work that is needed be done. Since most trees are in the development phase, each season we will increase mango production as the trees are becoming adults. We let the herbs grow in winter as they protect the soil from erosion and favor the biodiversity that helps fight pests and maintain balance, in spring we remove them manually to prevent them from drying out the soil. The organic matter they accumulate also serves to protect the soil and thus we avoid the use of herbicides. The farm’s planting is designed to promote the infiltration of rainwater into the soil and recharge the aquifers it uses sustainably to irrigate crops. In the management of the crop we paint the trunks with lime to prevent the spread of some pests such as the aphid (the ants move the aphids from tree to tree and the lime in the trunks makes this difficult) and at the same time prevent the bark of the tree from suffering burns, so you will see the trees painted white. Right now relatives and one or two workers are helping on the farm depending on the work to be done on the farm. The salary received by the workers is in accordance with the collective agreement, above what is required. In our work team, specific tasks are distributed to each worker, although all our workers are qualified to cover all the needs of the farm such as pruning, grafting, watering, fertilizing, etc. The quality of the fruit that we send must firstly have an optimal state of ripeness. Secondly, it must be collected minimizing the loss of quality due to blows or inadequate conservation. Thirdly, the packaging is as homogeneous as possible and there must be an exact planning at all times so that the fruit passes as directly as possible from the tree to your home without unnecessary preservation. The fruit not suitable for shipping is intended for local consumption, in general we use it responsibly for jams and / or consumption for family and friends in the area. What is left from prunings is used as organic matter on the farm itself, and the fruits in poor condition are usually given to neighboring farmers to feed animals and avoid waste. There is no centralized composting area. We chose to compost directly under each tree in order for it to generate its own organic matter.