My name is Sergio Quijada Domínguez and I am 45 years old. I am from Malaga and from a very young age I have had a passion for nature and environmental sustainability. My family instilled in me a love for the countryside and agriculture and since I was a child I enjoyed spending time with my grandparents and parents in the family gardens. Four years ago, I decided to turn my work life around. It was not an easy choice, but my enthusiasm and passion for developing an activity far from the big city led me to develop a project to grow organic passion fruit supported by my wife and children. During my life, I have worked in various fields. I started at the age of 17 as part of the Civil Guard but a work accident made it impossible for me to continue with my role in this state security force. In those years I returned to the countryside, and shortly after I started a garden maintenance company. Being an entrepreneur took its toll on me, and due to great stress, in 2015 I had heart problems and went through surgery. I was reborn again. From then on, I dedicated myself to one of my passions, dogs. I am a professional dog trainer and behaviour modification technician; I came to compete in championships in Spain and Europe with this profession. I also dedicated part of my time and space on the farm to the rescue and recovery of abandoned dogs. Now I have returned to the agricultural world with this peculiar and exotic fruit. One of the biggest difficulties I encountered was how lost I was when it came to cultivating it, as there are no references to this crop in Europe. This led me to make many mistakes, which have cost me time and money. I look back now and feel that everything has been worth it. Currently, I probably have the largest European production of organic passion fruit, which I intend to expand in the coming months. I am part of the CrowdFarming project and the Tropiterranean movement, in which I can show all this work. It is an enormous satisfaction that feeds my heart with passion, enthusiasm and a lot of emotion. After several months of searching, I found a farm that had not been cultivated for more than 10 years. It is located on the coast of the Axarquía of Malaga, in the municipality of Vélez-Málaga (Spain). Its fertile land, its own well of exceptionally good quality water and its perfect orientation instantly made me fall in love. I knew that the Hoyo del Higuerón farm was the ideal one to develop my project. Our tropical climate prompted me to look for an innovative crop that was different from what is grown in this area. I had a clear idea in my mind, that was to work under the strictest ecological standards having the least environmental impact. One of the main points is the consumption of irrigation water. My parents and grandparents always strongly instilled in me that water resources should be valued and managed in the most efficient and respectful way with Mother Nature. I have always had the help of my parents who have taught me even more about the secrets and difficulties that we face in agriculture. This work ethic provides harmony with nature, respecting its times and whims and learning every day to continue advancing and improving. Being an almost unknown crop, it was not an easy start, however today I produce my own passion fruit plants that I myself have selected among those that best adapt to the area. I also carry out transplant work, plant guidance and pruning. I don’t rest until I see a healthy, vigorous and highly productive plant. The irrigation systems have been set up with the help of my wife and my children, a self-compensated drip irrigation system in which we use the water strictly necessary for the development of our crop. Everything on the farm passes through our hands until we reach the final moment of harvesting the fruit. Once collected, our neighbours, who own a logistic centre very close to the farm, help us with the packaging task. To me, more than neighbours they are practically family.

Our farm "Hoyo del Higuerón" gets its name from the amount of fig trees that are grown here in the wild. These Mediterranean plants are bioindicators since they are inedible, broad-leaved and deciduous trees that indicate the exceptional fertility of this land. The farm is surrounded by tropical crops, mainly avocados and mangoes. It is right between the sea and the mountain, so it creates a special microclimate that protects us from the strong winds coming from the north. Our farm is family owned, hence I dedicate most of my time to its care. My family helps me with my day-to-day tasks when they can, and my wife and my children love spending time in this beautiful corner of the world. I have a helper who gives me a hand with my day-to-day tasks such as clearing the weeds or checking the irrigation system, and during the harvest season we hire seasonal workers from the area. Respect for nature and people is essential, that is why all the people who work with me are always contracted under a collective agreement. As they need training and specialization due to the conditions and peculiarity of the fruit, their salary exceeds the average. The farm is small, it has an approximate area of 1.7 acres, of which 1.2 are dedicated to the cultivation of this fruit. About 3,000 square meters of the remaining free space are allocated to Mother Nature, so that insects and native life of the area continue to develop and flourish. The rest of the land is for our horses (Trueno and Passiflora), who are in charge of helping us fertilize the plants. We also have the help of our own hives that we care for and maintain throughout the year. They help us pollinate the flowers of passion fruit plants. Our land has its own well and a pool, containing 50,000 litres where we store the water to supply our irrigation system. The amount of water that a passion fruit plant needs varies depending on the season. Its roots are extremely sensitive to changes in temperature and humidity, so this is where we always pay special attention before providing irrigation. In the hottest months of summer, a grown passion fruit plant may need between 5-7 litres of water a day. All the work on the farm is carried out following the guidelines of the organic regulations of the European Union, and we are in the process of conversion to organic farming. We do not use chemicals, pesticides, or herbicides and no plastics that harm nature. We control the grass with mechanical methods such as brush cutters. The two horses are in charge of the daily fertilizer contribution for our plants and our hives make it possible for the miracle of pollination to take place between their flowers. I am very concerned about sustainability and that is why all the processes, from plowing the land to harvesting the fruit, have been developed based on respect and sustainability with the environment. We collect the fruit at its optimum ripening moment, one by one, through manual and artisanal means, guaranteeing the highest quality for our clients. Not all are the same size but all are characterized by an explosion of tropical flavours when you taste them. The pruning leftovers and the very little fruit that is wasted due to its conditions, are left on the ground to protect it and compost naturally.