Mango cultivation in Greece is the latest bizarre climate change experiment as droughts become the norm

“Right there!” he exclaimed.

For decades, this fertile land on the shores of the Ionian Sea has been known mainly for olive trees, in addition to watermelon and other crops.

But even this part of Greece that rains more than other parts of the country is experiencing the effects of drought.

After its warmest winter on record, Greece also experienced its hottest June and July since reliable data collection began in 1960.

“There is no such thing as winter,” Adamopoulos, 38, told AFP, adding that his property had not received a single drop of rain since March.

“No water, no culture,” said the farmer, whose trees seem to grow right in the Ionian Sea.

Most of Adamopoulos’ income currently comes from iceberg lettuce.

But with increasingly dry seasons, he may soon have to give up some of his profitable but water-intensive crops, such as watermelons.

Adamopoulos is among a small number of Greek growers turning to tropical fruits – mangoes, avocados, lychees, cherimoya and macadamia nuts – which he says are “more resilient” to the Mediterranean region’s increasingly intense heat .

For now, he grows only a few dozen mango and avocado trees on his 80-hectare (198-acre) property.

The exotic fruits are adapting so well to their new surroundings that Adamopoulos now plans to plant 300 more trees. He said he has already received orders for the first harvests, which are due at the end of this month.

The initiative is part of a study by Greece’s state agricultural institute, Demeter, to determine whether the tropical fruit could help solve the country’s drought problem.

It is not a miracle solution

Study supervisor Teresa Tzatzani says the idea is “to find new ways to deal with this climate change and make it work in our favor.”

“It’s warmer all year round now and that’s good for these crops,” she said.

Although avocados already grow on the island of Crete, scientists were unsure whether the tree would adapt to conditions on the Greek mainland.

And while mango trees need very little rainfall, the past two winters have been unusually dry, Tzatzani noted.

This kind of innovation is essential to save the sector from future climate disasters, said Antonis Paraskevopoulos, head of agriculture for the local region of Triphylia.

But for now, tropical fruits are not a miracle solution.

The program currently has only a dozen farmers and about 10 hectares under cultivation.

And while it’s not meant to replace local staples like olives or oranges, it can act as a complement, said Tzatzani, who plans to expand the experiment to other Greek regions.

Neighboring countries face similar problems. In Italy, Sicilian farmers began to produce mangoes, bananas and papayas.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts that the Mediterranean basin, one of the “hotspots” of climate change, will experience more frequent heat waves and droughts.

A “bad year”?

Theodoros Dimitrakakis, another Greek farmer participating in the initiative, estimates that it will take years for tropical fruit production to become profitable in Greece.

Despite his enthusiasm for the experiment, the 34-year-old says he cannot afford to devote all his time to it, as his main source of income, the olives, requires his full attention.

His village, like many in Greece, is often without water for several hours during the day due to scheduled cuts.

Last year, his olive yield was 60 percent below average, Dimitrakakis said.

Despite being an environmental activist during his university years, Dimitrakakis admits that he only recently realized that climate change would affect him so soon.

Now he’s hoping to convince other local farmers, some of whom prefer to think it’s just a “bad year”.

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