Cyprus olive farmer vows change to face climate challenge

AKAKI, Cyprus: Standing in her olive grove in Cyprus, Elena Sampson sighs at the sight of hundreds of barren trees and vows to tackle climate change after another scorching year. The first of several heatwaves in 2020 descended in May, the flowering season for her 2,500 olive and citrus trees in Akaki, about 20km outside the Mediterranean island's capital Nicosia. "This year the heatwave struck at the exact time that the olive trees were flowering, and it was not just a heatwave of a couple of days," said the 38-year-old Greek Cypriot. "We were watering, watering, but we didn't manage to save the blossoms," Sampson said. "This year, maybe 40 (of her 1,200 olive) trees had olives. Nothing! Nothing!" Elena Sampson sighs at the sight of hundreds of barren trees in her olive orchard, hit be heatwave after heatwave. (Photo: AFP/Amir Makar) Harvested for millennia on Cyprus, olives are at the heart of the local culture and trees now cover 11,000 hectares of its land, according to the ...