Valladolid, June (EFE).- A total of 1,300 farmers and ranchers from Castilla y León, according to police sources, took to the streets of Valladolid this Thursday to demand aid from the Central Government and the regional government to alleviate a drought that has left the sector “in the ICU”.
Under the motto “Drought ruins the field. Direct aid and flexible PAC now”, the farmers and ranchers, summoned by the Professional Agricultural Organizations, have requested an aid package of at least one billion euros, that is, half the amount they estimate they have lost this campaign : 2,000 million euros.
The Takeovers have classified this act as a “wake-up call” to the administrations and have advanced that, if they do not receive a favorable response to their requests, they will organize a nationwide protest in Madrid before the general elections.
The protest, which started from the Government delegation in Castilla y León and has passed through the center of the city to the Ministry of Agriculture, has taken place without incident and with a strong police deployment, after the attempted assault on the Delegation of the Junta in Salamanca last week by a cattle collective in a protest.
Request for help from the EU, the Government and the Junta
This day of protest of the professionals of the field of Castilla y León called by Asaja, UCCL and UPA-Coag has directed its protests both to the EU, as well as to the central and regional governments.
“It cannot be that working, we are ruining ourselves”, lamented the president of Asaja in the autonomous community, Donaciano Dujo, while his UCCL counterpart, Jesús Manuel González Palacín, has reproached the administrations for having “turned their backs ” to the field: “2022 was bad, 2017 worse, but this 2023 has been the final straw”, he expressed.
Among the requests of the sector are direct and financial aid, with zero-rate loans with a two-year grace period and amortization in seven years, and flexibility of the CAP, given the “outrage” of having to leave full plots until September 1 of weeds, have lamented.
For all this, the Opa’s have demanded aid from the community, national and regional administrations for a value of one billion euros so that the producers of Castilla y León take care of the other thousand that the drought has caused losses.
insufficient aid
They have also branded as “ridiculous” the package of measures approved by the Government in its royal decree against the drought, while they have accused the Junta de Castilla y León of not having yet put direct aid funds on the table.
Apart from these direct aids, the countryside has requested a comprehensive improvement in agricultural insurance, with the consideration of the exceptionality of the 2022/2023 campaign, something that was just approved this Thursday by the Autonomous Government Council at its weekly meeting.
Finally, other support measures claimed by the sector involve better water and fodder management in times of scarcity, increased investment in hydraulic water storage infrastructures or a research plan that contemplates global alternatives for the adaptation of the agriculture in the face of climate change. EFE