José Augusto Santos Castanheira farms 40 hectares of tomatoes at Benfica do Ribatejo, Almeirim, Portugal. The farm is integrated in a Producer/Growers Organisation, which offers two major advantages:
1) It provides technical assistance to the farm through a specialist agronomist who instructs in the correct application, use and timing of all plant protection products. The agronomist is able to keep up to date with all new legislation and specific requirements from the processors, ensuring that all products applied by the farm are used only when necessary and in the most efficient and effective manner.
2) It operates as a major link in the relationship between the farmers and the tomato paste processor. As the processor handles over 375,000 tonnes of tomatoes over the short harvest period (50 days), a continuous flow of product is essential to ensure the factory works to its optimum capacity and to enable all the tomatoes to be harvested at the best possible quality and within the designated time scales.
All of the tomato varieties used on the farm have been developed by Heinz in order to meet tomato paste production quality requirements while increasing pest and disease resistance. All of the tomato plants are developed from natural breeding techniques. The farm keeps extensive records for the tomatoes planted; including previous crops grown in the field, planting dates, tomato varieties used, and number of plants per hectare. All fertiliser use, plant protection products and management practices are recorded, and all this information is sent to the processor prior to the delivery of the crop. At harvest, a unique code is allocated to each load from the field and this follows the tomatoes to the factory where routine testing for BRIX, physical quality and pesticides are carried out to ensure quality requirements are met prior to release into the factory. The unique code is retained all the way through the factory process and enables full traceability back to the farm and therefore to the on-farm records.
The farm uses a wide range of sustainable agricultural practices. The first interesting practice is fruitworm management. The typical treatment for fruitworm is with a registered insecticide
every 5-7 days, when the fruit begins to set.However, Benfica do Ribatejo uses pheromone traps to capture the Fruitworm moth and once threshold levels have been met, a treatment
programme can be established. This has the benefit of reducing pesticide applications from the routine 5-7 days, to a targeted methodology, allowing the most advantageous
product to be applied, giving better control in the most cost effective way.
The farm also uses drip irrigation, resulting in:
- Increased fruit yield;
- Reduction in labour, irrigation water (to increase efficiency) and in supplying water to tomato plants; and
- Improved crop uniformity at all stages (due to the efficiency of all mechanised activities, such as transplanting and mechanical harvesting).
Over the last 10 years this has meant that water usage has been cut by over 50%, resultingin increased yields due to the plants water requirements being properly managed.
Benfica do Ribatejo’s irrigation water can be tested and sampled for levels of pesticide and nitrogen. The farm may also be required to provide a soil sample which is then tested for heavy metal levels. The Grower Organisation is contracted by the processor to have one soil test for every 10,000 tonnes of tomato delivered to the factory although the organisation is exceeding this requirement and conducting further soil analysis.
In the end, improved farm management techniques have led to yield increases of up to 50% during the last 10 years, as well as an overall improvement in fruit quality. The level of sophistication at Benfica do Ribatejo is high; the use of drip irrigation has been a significant success and the investment in mechanisation has also generated improved efficiency and economic benefits. The increased output from the farm ultimately improves economics of the farming business, which is one of the cornerstones of sustainability.
