[:is]We share with you the interview conducted with our Technical Director Pedro Palazón by Ginés Conesa published on June 28 in the printed edition of the newspaper La Verdad de Murcia entitled: "Seal of Quality in Crops".
As the humorist José Mota popularized, "if you have to go, you go." He has just arrived from Cuenca and in two days of march to La Coruña, even if it is breathless. Pedro Palazón has traveled more than 80,000 km by road and many others by air in his tireless search for clients, project planning, research and innovation of agricultural products, a sector in which he is a specialist practically from the cradle and to which the company that he has created and directs, IDEAGRO, dedicated to agri-food research and development, which already employs five people (engineers and biologists) and doubles its turnover every year despite the crisis. Such an activity does not distract him for a minute more than is essential to enjoy his family and to continue studying: he is preparing his doctoral thesis that will deal with the reduction of mycotoxins in cereals.
Do not know unemployment
Fortunately for him and for his formidable capacity for work, Pedro Palazón has not stopped working even before finishing his technical engineering degree, since he was hired at the same company where he did his first internships. There he began to forge his until today successful professional career during which he has combined, and continues to do so, teaching, engineering, research, paternity and advanced studies. The company, created in the middle of the economic crisis with its own resources, basically consists of an R+D+i Department (Research, development and innovation) at the service of companies in the agri-food sector that do not have their own department and for which it develops new manufacturing processes, products such as biostimulants as well as more sustainable production methodologies.
– Why healthier?
– When you apply a fungicide to a plant, it leaves a residue that you then “eat”. If, based on extracts and combinations that we research and develop in our own laboratory, as well as later test in cultivated fields, we obtain products that do not have detectable residues; healthier products.
Simple explanation that Pedro says fluently, as he speaks, very fast, almost running over the words, a form of expression that comes to be a reflection of his great capacity. Shortly after talking, you can see that he is forged at work, exudes simplicity and naturalness as well as self-confidence without petulance. He doesn't brag. He did not tell the journalist that his knowledge of the subject has led him to give several conferences and courses in different parts of Spain and abroad, the last one, in Kentucky USA, within the framework of the Alltech Symposium 2014 where more than 3,000 professionals from 80 countries.
Why your own company?
When Pedro Palazón helped and observed that the family business (which was swept away by the economic crisis of 1994) the world was organized under national parameters and state policies. Today this way of conceiving reality has changed, both in the economic, political and social spheres, in which concepts such as integration, interdependence or globalization prevail, which decisively influenced the decision to set up their own company. This is how he explains it: -I was driven by the need to reconvert and adapt to circumstances. After 5 years as an engineer linked to the development and construction of agri-food industries, he had detected that they had incredible potential that they were not properly exploiting. They needed to innovate, develop new products; «do more with less and above all, do better what they already knew how to do».
At IDEAGRO we carry out applied research, giving support to those companies that want to innovate and develop new products, helping them to develop their ideas and even financing their development.
In expansion
IDEAGRO's short age registers continued growth. Its clients are Spanish and foreign companies, but it does not admit more than two new clients each year. -Just as we investigate to achieve sustainable products, we also want to grow sustainably. What you do, you must do well and also, the client appreciates our closeness very much-, Explain. He also participates in international cooperation projects, developing agri-food industries in Africa and Latin America and, in order not to forget his teaching facet, he has created a online platform: AGRODOCENTIA.com, specialized in applied training for the agri-food sector. They do very specialized courses (in collaboration with companies and university) on various themes. Until now, they have trained more than 200 technical specialists in agricultural production without residues.
We are good, let's spread it.
Pedro regrets that there is not much more support for what we could call the "Murcia brand". -What we see is a lack of support in disclosing what we do. We know that strawberries are from Huelva, but not that Murcia provides lettuce to all of Europe, or that we are the main producers of seedless grapes (apirena), or that lemons are produced in Murcia at all times of the year. If we talk about efficiency in irrigation, we talk about Israel, but not about Murcia, where we are irrigating with high salinity water and limestone soils poor in organic matter. You tell it in León or in the US and everyone is surprised and appreciated, but here it is not promoted.
– Who is he pointing to? To the administration, to the companies?
At two o'clock. When you travel you realize the high level of development and innovation we have and the high value we have as engineers and professionals in the agri-food sector...
DIMENSIONS
Since his father had an agricultural industry, Pedro Antonio Palazón Monreal (Ulea, 1978) has been linked to the agri-food sector since he was born. So he was always clear that he wanted to be when he grew up and when he finished high school in Archena, he studied Agricultural Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Cartagena where he obtained a scholarship for his brilliant academic record. Later he began to carry out internships at the company Anotnio Muñoz through a University-Company agreement, where he was hired for two years in the Technical Department. Later he was hired by another company in Castellón where he started as a Technician and ended as Production Director. In 2005 he changed the company for classrooms and was a secondary school teacher, an activity that he combined with the free exercise of the engineering profession, carrying out construction projects for agri-food industries, as well as development and cooperation projects in Senegal. In 2007 his first son was born and to all of the above, he added the beginning of the Higher Engineering degree. Four years later he created IDEAGRO (based in Lorquí, laboratory in Alhama and its own farms as well as experimental fields in Lorca where it experiments and develops crop improvement projects) that develops research and training work for different national and multinational companies. He is married to María Ángeles García, also an agricultural engineer, and is the father of two children: Pedro and Ángel.
Original article: The Murcian Truth[:]
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