A study of the UPO recounts the agricultural transformation of Almería and Granada in the hands of its protagonists

The agricultural revolution in the West of Almeria and Granada costa is product of arduous farm families work for decades and not a specific technological revolution. This is one of the main conclusions which reaches a study conducted by José Francisco Jiménez, Professor of the University Pablo de Olavide, which carries out an itinerary with the agricultural transformation in the East coast of Andalusia through the experiences of its protagonists. The work, published by Editorial Comares under the title ' biographical stories of farmers. Memory of the agricultural revolution on the coast of Almería and Granada', seeks to deepen and highlight a phenomenon of the history recent Andalusian, according to the author, almost unknown and caricatured. "Often refers to these farmers as well as superb, racist people and newly rich, but what I've found people of humble origin, with basic training but with a great knowledge about the sector that has earned them to make a desert a prosperous place economically", says José Francisco Jiménez. For its study, the researcher has been, among other sources, with the stories of 42 farmers aged 33 to 95, from six different locations, that it has served to draw a collective biographical account ranging from mid-20th century to the present day.

The study is based on the beginning of the 1950s, when the peasant population in the area, those who cultivate the land for subsistence, were forced to travel to Seville, Cadiz and Granada agricultural campaigns and, even, to emigrate in order to survive. This was because the crops of the region were extensive and heavy dependence on weather conditions, at a time where they suffered several periods of drought. The situation began to change in the decades of the 1960s and 1970s, with the support of the National Institute of colonization. The regime created conditions to stabilize the areas of origin, parcelando land and driving techniques such as the sanding. The family involved in the work, especially women, who combined the home, children and work in the greenhouses. "The turning point during which the Almeria setting and the Granada coast pass being land of emigrants to destination of immigrants marks it the launching of intensive agriculture," says José Francisco Jiménez. In his study, the researcher of the UPO reflects how, in the 1980s, farmers take up traditional techniques such as the greenhouse type parral and go beyond introducing the use of plastics. In this way, the greenhouses settle as a production model that overflows to the family and starts to attract people from, especially in North Africa. "Biographical stories of farmers." "Memory of the agricultural revolution in the coast of Almería and Granada" is the third book by José Francisco Jiménez, and the second as a single author.