In agriculture, the bancals are terraces that form a cultivated field space, limited by margins.
In the case of olive harvesting, these margins that limit them are man-made dry stone margins formations.
They end up arranging the land in the form of terraces at different heights from each other. Therefore, we do not find a completely flat terrain, but organic agriculture enhances the use of these different spaces.
In our farms, long margins of dry stone separate some terraces from the others and protect crops from water and wind erosion, maintain moisture in the soil, as well as the diversity of various trees, such as almond trees, fig trees… that accompany the olive fields.
This type of organization is known as a minifundi. But we must not only understand minifundism as a plot division, but as a territorial organization that includes all the productive elements, landscape conservation, tradition, culture and a Mediterranean ecosystem that we think we must protect.
Long live the bancals!