The young farm is very modern and progressive. From the start, Mario and the team of Frutas de Piura showed their commitment to social and ecological projects and often involved the local population, too. Water is a high value good as the area is known for its dryness. Their current water project gives a new purpose and use to their unavoidable process water. But how do they do it?
During the packing process, it takes about 40m³ of water to wash and clean the bananas for one container. This process water is first collected in a reservoir with a capacity of 83m³ and then recycled and finally re-used for the irrigation of a 10,000 m² area. In 2020 this area was newly planted with a couple of hundred Neem trees and Buffalo Grass (Stenotaphrum Secundatum) as well as a tropical grass with a mat forming habit that can withstand extremely high temperatures.
Neem trees are true all-rounders and especially known for their healing powers, so they can more or less replace an entire pharmacy. However, you cannot only use them for medical products to fight illnesses and plagues, but you can also produce biological fertilisers and pesticides. In addition, the trees serve as windbreaks. Their fast and undemanding growth makes them the ideal tree for reforestation.
Frutas de Piura manage to create sustainable green areas and give a sensible new purpose to the process water generated during the processing of the bananas. They leave a green footprint by using water wisely … twice!
With this water project our partner is supporting the following SDGs:
