Laura Ramírez I Huelva, (EFE).- The province of Huelva currently concentrates 98% of the national production of red fruits -strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries- and within it is the zone of the North Forest Crown of Doñana the one that brings together the highest percentage, around 80% of the total.
This area these days is current as a result of the proposed Law for the reorganization of irrigation whose processing is approved by the Parliament of Andalusia. It is distributed by the municipalities of Almonte, Lucena del Puerto, Bonares, Rociana del Condado and Moguer.
These are eminently agricultural municipalities. For decades they saw, first only in strawberries and over the years in their diversification towards the rest of red fruits, an important economic activity and employment niche.
Not surprisingly, today, these towns generate 80,000 of the 100,000 total jobs in the berry sector in Huelva each campaign. According to data from Freshuelva and the Platform in Defense of County irrigation. In addition, last season red fruit exports, including strawberries, reached a value of 1,392 million euros. Coming from these municipalities 80%.
The Strawberry Plan
It is an area that at the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the 21st century underwent an unplanned expansion of irrigation and greenhouses. For this reason, already in 2004, the Doñana Land Management Plan (POTAD), which included the soil according to its different uses, including rainfed and irrigated agriculture, recommended the drafting of a plan to order the areas with irrigated crops located in that North Crown. In order to control water resources, and ensure ecological connectivity and landscape protection.
On December 7, 2007, the Andalusian Government approved the Special Irrigation Management Plan for the North Forest Crown of Doñana, known as the Strawberry Plan. Starting a long period of six years. In which the Ministry of the Environment had to respond to the more than 4,000 allegations presented to the initial draft.
On April 11, 2014, it was approved by the Doñana Participation Council. With 37 votes in favor and five against. And on December 16, the Governing Council approves it. Entering into force on December 31 of that same year.
The plan affects an area of 64,457 hectares, of which some 9,340 were initially considered irrigable in those five municipalities. By meeting the requirements for irrigated agricultural land in 2004 and having maintained its activity in the following years.
485 files since 2018
Its entry into force did not imply its immediate application and from practically the beginning there were farmers who showed their rejection. Because their irrigated lands were left out of that arrangement, the Platform for the Defense of County Irrigations was set up in 2012. It is currently made up of 1,500 farmers.
This situation led the PP already in April 2016 to present a first non-legal proposal in Parliament to review the plan. Claiming that 30% of the irrigable area was left out, a proposal that was rejected.
Beyond this controversy, which continues to this day, the activity of some of the farmers in these municipalities has been marked by sanctions and the closure of wells that served them to make illegal collections by the administrations. In a control task that has increased in recent years.
Thus, the Board has initiated 485 files since 2018 in the area of application of the Strawberry Plan. According to the data from the latest Report of the Monitoring Commission of the Special Planning Plan, to which EFE has had access.
Notwithstanding the 63 disciplinary proceedings initiated from 2014 to 2018, they have been initiated from 2018 to December 2022. 306 disciplinary proceedings in forestry material and 179 in water matters.
Sanctions on farmers
For its part, the Gualdalquivir Hydrographic Confederation (CHG) will have closed some 1,200 surveys in 4 years by the end of the legislature. Of these, 443 are due to the regularization of the irrigable area of El Fresno del Guadalquivir. P due to the arrival of surface water thanks to the first part of the transfer of Tinto-Odiel-Piedra to the Guadalquivir demarcation. And some 716 respond to forced executions because they are illegal recruiting.
Of them, 220 are closed -half voluntarily by the owners before the requirements or notifications of the Confederation and the other half by the CHG itself-. 70 will be closed this summer and the rest will be done when the administrative claim process is finished.
A good part of these farmers who have been subject to sanctions are those who demand that the situation of their farms be regularized. Understanding that they meet the requirements for this if the reality of the area is taken into account in 2014, when the Strawberry Plan was approved. Some 700 hectares, according to estimates by the Platform in Defense of County Irrigation. EFE