Andalusia Declares Its Agriculture Xylella-Free

Summary

A study con­ducted in Andalusia con­firmed the absence of the Xylella fas­tidiosa bac­terium in olive, almond, and cit­rus trees, as well as orna­men­tal plants in the region’s agri­cul­ture. The pre­ven­ta­tive mea­sures, includ­ing diag­nos­tic tests and com­pli­ance with EU require­ments, were part of a con­tin­gency plan to pro­tect Andalusia’s vital olive oil indus­try from the poten­tial eco­nomic impact of the plant pathogen.

A recent Andalusia-focused study has con­firmed the absence of the Xylella fas­tidiosa bac­terium in a range of the region’s agri­cul­ture. The 600 tests were admin­is­tered on olive, almond, and cit­rus trees, as well as orna­men­tal plants — and all in the Andalusian regions of Almería, Granada, Málaga, and Jaén.

This pre­ven­ta­tive study was ini­ti­ated by the region’s Ministry of Agriculture as part of a con­tin­gency plan meant to com­ply with EU demands to pre­vent the entrance and spread­ing of the bac­terium within the union (the world’s largest olive oil pro­ducer, whose indus­try could be destroyed by Xylella’s advance­ment).

As part of the plan, Andalusia imple­mented a vari­ety of mea­sures, includ­ing the afore­men­tioned series of analy­ses. These diag­nos­tic tests were able to ana­lyze the bac­terium, its mol­e­c­u­lar biol­ogy, and pro­vide early detec­tion if the dis­ease existed.

Since its dis­cov­ery in Italy in 2013, Xylella fas­tidiosa — which inhibits plants’ abil­ity to trans­port water and nutri­ents — has been recorded else­where in the EU, includ­ing south­ern France. So far Spain has remained unaf­fected, and these tests affirm that the plant pathogen has not yet pen­e­trated Andalusia’s bor­ders.

Other pre-emp­tive mea­sures beyond the test­ing have included enforc­ing com­pli­ance with the EU’s require­ments around the entrance of plant mate­r­ial from out­side coun­tries. Additionally, Andalusia requested that the Spanish cen­tral gov­ern­ment insist that regional author­i­ties across the nation pro­hibit the import of plant prod­ucts from Xylella-affected areas.

It’s all an effort that the south­ern Spanish region takes very seri­ously given the poten­tial eco­nomic impact if the plague were to take hold. Andalusia is the top pro­ducer of olive oil in the world, with 1.5 mil­lion hectares of land ded­i­cated to the indus­try.

The result is some 250,000 fam­i­lies and more than 300 munic­i­pal­i­ties who depend on the region’s olive agri­cul­ture — and hope that they can con­tinue to. So far so good for Andalusia, though the bat­tle against the bac­terium is cer­tainly far from over.

• Junta de Andalucía


• ASAJA Jaén