The region of Murcia seeks to improve the competitiveness of its tomatoes

García Lidón met, in this event, the new greenhouses that favor the climatic optimization, as well as practices of cultivation without soil and robotic cultivation that are developed to improve production.

The director-general noted that the programme of modernization of the sector of tomatoes and other crops that undertakes the region includes "aid to producers of tomato and pepper to improve tightness in greenhouses and reduce the incidence of pests".

This murcian initiative also focuses on the search for the optimization of the climatic conditions which favour the increase of productivity and come to the marks obtained in countries such as Holland.

In this sense, responsible for Autonomic stressed the plan for the improvement of the energy efficiency of the greenhouses, which will lead to the introduction of cogeneration systems. It's a technique that, according to García Lidón, "allows the production of heat which is intended to the agricultural heating to increase the productivity of the crop and the obtaining of electricity in a single process, pouring the surpluses that are generated at a regulated price grid".

Another positive factor resulting from the introduction of this practice is "the obtaining of CO₂ of high purity, resulting in the filtration of exhaust gases generated." "This CO₂ is injected into the greenhouses to obtain a carbonic fertilization and thus increase the yield of crops", concluded the director-general.