María José Serrano Arnau
Innovator
Olivares
Spain
Environmental
Farming
Rural area close to city
The innovation journey
Olivares is a Technological Innovation Project based on the combination of new devices and other technologies, aimed at combating water stress in olive groves. Started in early 2021, and under development, it is a project located in Alcaudete, Spain, and led by María José Serrano Arnau, a lawyer who decided to leave her job to cultivate the land she inherited from her father.
Her main aspiration was to improve the average environment and work the land, highlighting how worrying and real climate change is.
The innovation impact
The basic idea of the project is to find a solution for the decreasing availability of water. Therefore, through the use of these technologies, María José Serrano wants to find a solution that can then be shared with other farmers. There are several indicators of success for this initiative, including receiving an award, The Ministry Agriculture Award in 2022.
Furthermore, the successes of the new innovative methods are evident, as the olive trees have significantly grown. Research on methods that help make the land more profitable is still developing, to push the economy forward while respecting nature and the environment. Another objective realised is the sharing of knowledge with other farmers, the members of the Alacudere cooperative, as well as implementing different techniques developed by the farmers who are members of the SCA Perpetuo Socorro de Alcaudete.
Initiatives like the Olivares Project are important in terms of spreading awareness about climate change. It is common to take it for granted that we possess water indefinitely, but this is not the case, and the Olivares Project is important to find a solution to the diminishing availability.