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Roots
of Good Ground:
The story of a life with bananas.
In the year 1956, after finishing my studies in the city
of Guayaquil, I returned to El Oro, to continue working
the soil and to grow bananas plants, which served to form
shadows over the crops, which was the principal agricultural
activity of the time.
There was a time when an intermediary buyer from UNITED
FRUIT, asked me to sell him, if I had any, bananas plantations
in production, to which I replied that all I had sowed
was some land not fit for his purpose, however he asked
me to take him there to see if it was possible to sow
it, this is how I picked some tales and in a truck I took
them to the port. When the buyer observed what I showed
him, he remarked that the fruit was being wasted and that
it also had good weight and excellent quality.
Then on I started taking him the amount of 150 clusters
of some of the plants that were originally used to give shade to
the cacao crops..
The result was that in a five month period I had collected
the amount of 22.000 sucres. This money served me to build
an irrigation channel in San Agustín River, which ended
in Buenavista River, with which the pastures would be
watered and the whole farm called "La Montaña", property
of my father.
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With
the first economical benefits, I decided to improve
the land to get a larger production and a better
quality of fruit.
I rented the farm "La Maria" from Mr. Ricardo Calero,
located in the town La Victoria, located in Santa
Rosa county, at the riverside of the Buenavista
River.
This was a cocoa farm, but I managed to sow thousands
of bananas plants and in six years obtained enough
earnings. |
This way I began to grow financially. I bought new land
to continue sowing what's known as the green gold.
I was one of the first farmers to install a a fixed system
of irrigation by aspersion and funicular systems to improve
the conditions of quality and productivity, since, because
of the panama problem, most of the silk bananas crops had
been lost, this is why various crops were sowed which
were resistant to this problem; getting for this purpose,
stumps of CAVENDISH, which was immune to the panama disease.
The first crops of this clone were discovered in the province
of Loja, were farmers sowed them in the hills to provide
shadow for coffee plantations.
It is believed that this variety was brought by Antilles
habitants, especially from the french colonies, which
were sowed in these lands to prove that the development
of bananas was possible in mild climates.
We
didn't know this kind of plant, in spite of being
resistant to the panama disease, it had phitosanitary
problems which affected its development, such as
sigatoka, nematode and other which is why this crop
demanded the use of chemicals to obtain positive
results.
This is how the era of chemicals in bananas plantations
began, to be used against the proliferation of diseases.
For such reasons, the State created the "Programa
Nacional de Banano" (National Program of Bananas),
to monitor the levels of infestation and therefore
accomplish the necessary controls. However, without
noticing we were deteriorating the crops through
the erosion of crops, damaging the health of workers
and the environment.
The health of my co workers was being affected by
the constant application of chemicals, this was
the fundamental reason why the methods from back
then were changed.
This is how, since ten years ago Prieto Agricultural
Group has been the pioneer in conforming a bananas
enterprise with national technicians, lovers of
our land.
Committed to the study and practice of offering
healthy bananas in favor of the health of our children
and to give the same productivity as we had a decade
ago. |
Econ.
Pablo Prieto
MANAGER OF THE PRIETO AGRICULTURE GROUP |
Today we are proud to contribute in the conservation of
our environment and to the health of the men that work for our land.
Aurelio Prieto Calderón.
PRESIDENT OF THE PRIETO AGRICULTURE GROUP.
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