Image of the UPA-UCE press conference, held in Mérida. /
The agrarian organization has announced what it will transfer to the Caex after the elections to the field: costs, drought, PAC and family farming
UPA-UCE Extremadura has announced at a press conference the main claims that it will transfer tomorrow to the new Agrarian and Rural Advisory Council after the elections to the countryside. In this sense, the agrarian organization has highlighted that the rise in production costs, the serious drought that Extremadura is experiencing, the negotiation of the new CAP and obtaining the approval of a Family Farming Law will be the great areas of work of this agrarian organization.
From UPA-UCE they point out that the drought has been getting worse every day until leaving “a bleak picture” in irrigation, which has suffered a very significant reduction in rice, corn or tomato, with the consequent losses for farmers who will not be able to compensate with the sowing of rainfed crops such as sunflower or cereal.
“The disproportionate rise in production costs is not only due to the war in Ukraine but also to the great speculation that has almost tripled the prices of fertilizers or diesel,” said the general secretary of UPA-UCE, Ignacio Huertas . For this reason, the agrarian organization demands that the Board allocate a part of the Rural Development funds to arbitrate “real measures” for Extremaduran irrigated farmers.
Likewise, UPA-UCE recalls that it continues to demand aid for sectors such as the Iberian pig, which is one of the most affected by the rise in feed prices and which has been left out of the established aid.
Regarding the new CAP, they point out that the eco-schemes must be adapted so that compliance does not generate viability problems for farms, such as higher costs or lower yields, since farmers and ranchers already produce, in most cases, sustainable. In addition, UPA-UCE opposes the withdrawal of aid for oilseeds as proposed by the Commission because “Europe needs proteins and we already see what is happening with sunflower oil,” Huertas stressed. For this reason, the agrarian organization proposes that, as an alternative, an aid be offered to the surface for the production of protein.
Another of the main areas of work of UPA-UCE will be to continue claiming fair support for traditional olive groves and prevent a significant part of the area from being left out of aid as is currently happening.
Finally, the great regional commitment of UPA-UCE will be to obtain the approval of a Law that protects family agriculture and livestock. This organization calls on the Junta de Extremadura to promote a model that provides “enormous benefits” to society but is “defenseless against great dangers that hinder its survival.”
For UPA-UCE, the family model of food production “is the most sustainable for the environment, the one that produces food of the highest quality and variety and the one that keeps the towns alive and fights against depopulation.”
“We have to bet on small or medium-sized family farms managed by their owners as opposed to large agro-industrial models that have little to do with life in the villages and the maintenance of the territory,” Huertas defended.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.