Valladolid (EFE).- The number of aid applications registered by farmers from Castilla y León to aspire to funds from the Community Agricultural Policy (PAC) has dropped to 65,543 at the end of the term -June 30-, 3.6 percent one hundred less than in 2022, when there were 67,978 applications.
According to the data provided this Friday by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development, the decrease in applications is common to all the provinces of the Community, although the decrease is more accentuated in those of Segovia, with 5.2% less, followed by Soria (4.9%), Zamora (4.6%) and Burgos (4%).
León and Salamanca, with 3.5% less, followed by Palencia (3.2%), Valladolid (2.3%) and Ávila, which is the one that presents a lower relative reduction with 1.8% fewer applications.
Despite this setback in the number of applicants, the Ministry has indicated that the total area declared in Castilla y León remains in similar terms to previous campaigns, with a figure slightly higher than 5.3 million hectares, mostly pasture (1.9 million hectares), wheat (784,644 hectares) and barley (715,023 hectares).
The deadline for submitting these applications opened on March 1 and closed on June 30, all of them electronically through the application developed by the Junta de Castilla y León in a web environment that also significantly reduces the submission documents in paper format.
“The disappearance of the simplified regime for small farmers, as well as the greater demands of beneficial practices for the climate and the environment, has caused the disappearance of certain farms, whose surface has come to include other existing ones, since the cultivated surface in a global way it is maintained ”, has argued the Ministry in its statement on the decrease in applications.
By types of applications, the largest number corresponds to the basic income support scheme and complementary payments to it, such as the redistributive payment, for which 59,345 applications have been submitted.
Second place corresponds to the new aid called ecoregimes, within the environmental component, to which 54,402 farmers and ranchers have applied.
In addition, 3,023 applications for complementary aid to young farmers and another 1,003 requests for basic income aid rights from the national reserve have been registered, the Ministry added.
In the next few days, once the definitive information has been obtained due to the end of the application period, the dissemination of information will begin on the venues with discrepancies in monitoring control, based on obtaining images from Sentinel satellites and continuous monitoring of the evolution of crops.
This control method, in which Castilla y León is a pioneer, is more effective with the necessary collaboration and participation of farmers and ranchers.
In this sense, for the resolution of possible discrepancies that may arise from the automated control method, the evidence that can be provided by agricultural professionals, mainly georeferenced photographs of their crops and uses, are of “enormous utility”, according to the Ministry. .
Other documentary evidence is also relevant, such as Agroseguro minutes, seed use invoices or any document that allows verifying the exercise of agricultural activity or the cultivation present in those premises that are the subject of the aforementioned discrepancy.
The objective of the Ministry is to make advance payments of the aid on the first business day authorized by the European Commission, in any case from next October 16, as well as to achieve an execution of payments in the same year of the request. of 95%.
COMPARISON OF SINGLE REGISTERED APPLICATIONS (Data from the Junta de Castilla y León) | |||
PROVINCE | year 2022 | year 2023 | % COMPARED TO 2022 |
AVILA | 6.832 | 6.710 | 98,2% |
BURGOS | 9.051 | 8.693 | 96,0% |
LEÓN | 8.694 | 8.396 | 96,5% |
PALENCIA | 6.065 | 5.871 | 96,8% |
SALAMANCA | 8.678 | 8.380 | 96,5% |
SEGOVIA | 6.207 | 5.889 | 94,8% |
SORIA | 4.108 | 3.906 | 95,1% |
VALLADOLID | 8.430 | 8.239 | 97,7% |
ZAMORA | 9.913 | 9.459 | 95,4% |
TOTAL | 67.978 | 65.543 | 96,4% |