The last Minister council brought good news to the field. The government approved a package of fiscal, labor and financing measures for a sector that is suffering the consequences of the drought, the pandemic and now also the war of Ukraine. And that he has taken up arms again. Majority associations of agriculture and livestock, but also of hunting or agri-food cooperatives, support a manifesto with 19 lawsuits what will take to Madrid this Saturday March 20 “in defense of the countryside, its culture and its traditions & rdquor ;.
It’s not the first time. The legislature started in 2020 with the rural world thrown into the streets, a Minister of Agriculture “concerned about the concern of the sector & rdquor; and a good handful of promises. Although the pandemic ended up reordering the coalition’s agenda, in these two years there have been measures to try to satisfy a group that is still willing to insist on its demands.
Government measures
After the 2020 protests, Agriculture created several dialogue tables and presented an urgent reform of the food chain law to introduce, as a mandatory clause in the contracts, an express indication that the agreed price covers the agricultural production costs. It was one of the main demands of the field. In December of last year he finished his career at the Congress, and the minister celebrated its approval, calling it “the most important for the agri-food sector in this legislature.” In the manifesto that they agitate for this 20M they demand the effective application of the law, which has been in force for months, but also a shock plan in the face of the new increase in production costs. The prolonged drought it is, ironically, the straw that has once again filled an overfull glass.
The field insists on requesting agricultural insurance that “can be assumed by the farms & rdquor ;, and the Government has announced that it will increase the approved endowment for 2022 in whatever is necessary “to respond to the growing demand in contracting & rdquor ;. In the latest package of measures for Agriculture, approved this week, a 20% reduction is included in the income tax modules for farmers, financial aid, the possibility of postpone the payment of Social Security contributions and lines of credit advantageous. For the hydrographic basins of the Guadalquivir and Guadiana, a reduction of between 50% and the total exemption from the regulatory fee and water use fees has also been approved.
The reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (PAC) and the Strategic Plan that the Government took to Brussels were not liked at all by farmers and ranchers, despite the attempts of Minister Luis Planas to show his benefits. The new definition of active farmer requires that at least 25% of the total income of 2022 be agricultural to access aid, and the sector asks that the loss of income from farms be taken into account. Planas has already announced that he will request relaxation of the application conditions.
unheeded requests
The countryside, drowned by the cost of energy, has added to its old demands a reduction of electricity rates and apply to irrigation supplies the same reduced VAT that was approved for domestic users. At the moment, this last demand has not received a response, but the Government is working on a shock plan that includes decoupling the price of electricity from that of gas, triggered by the war in Ukraine. It is the battle of Spain in the European Union.
Another historical claim is the possibility of contracting double electrical power for irrigation; that is, to have a lower power for the part of the year in which there is less consumption. The Government included it in the 2021 budgets and in the new food chain law, but is still pending a regulation that allows it to be applied.
insufficient winks
Several of the petitions with which the field will take to the streets on March 20 have to do with the hunting. Agriculture has unanimously approved the National Game Management Strategy with the autonomous communities. Planas makes an effort not only to highlight that the Government does not intend to end hunting, but also to point out its “fundamental” role; and wink at them. But the requests of the sector go further: they ask to recover the game in natural parkswhose ban came into force after the six-year moratorium established by the 2014 law, and are protesting against the ban on lead, which was voted in favor of the Government in the EU.
Difficult to fit requests
Some of the requests from the rural world they marry little or nothing with the government agreement of socialists and purple. Star measures such as the reform of the labor legislation of the PP or the animal welfare law clash squarely with the interests of the sector.
The new government labor law limits the causes of temporary hiring, but the entities that sign the manifesto claim that it is “intrinsic to the agricultural sector.” They also ask that the law on the protection, rights and welfare of animals, which the Government sent to Congress a few months ago and continues its parliamentary course, be withdrawn. The text includes hunting dogs and those used by shepherds, despite the fact that Agriculture wanted them to be left out, but in the internal pulse the criteria of Ione Belarra, in charge of the Social Rights portfolio, prevailed.
Related news
In September, the government included the wolf in the List of Wild Species under Special Protection Regime (LESPRE), preventing their hunting. The farmers ask for their withdrawal and “sustainable management plans for the species.” But the main problem is what each other understands by sustainable: the Executive believes that its draft of the wolf strategy “focuses on the coexistence between the species and extensive livestock farming & rdquor; by including preventive measures and compensation for possible damage caused by the animal with a budget of 20 million euros.
The problems of rural Spain
The first point of the 20M manifesto is a vague and very ambitious request. “Adequate social and health services” and “educational and employment plans” for rural Spain, that 16% of the population that inhabits 84% of the country’s territory. It is also the most difficult to measure. The Government has launched a plan to combat depopulationwith a budget of more than 10,000 million euros between 2021 and 2023. The Executive indicates that it has already started 82% of the 130 measures of the plan, but in the Spain of closed clinics or without doctors, internet connection failures and dangerous roads to get a vaccine, there is still a lot of work to be done.