The water crisis, bureaucracy, aid to the sector and generational renewal continue to be the main problems of Canarian farmers and ranchers, to which the agreement between the EU and Mercosur has been added, according to the new president of COAG (Coordinator of Organizations of Farmers and Ranchers), María del Carmen Pérez.
Some problems that have been transferred to the President of the Government of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, and the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food Sovereignty, Narvay Quintero, in the first meeting held by Pérez and the new executive of the Coordinator of Organizations of Farmers and Ranchers (COAG) in the islands, after replacing Rafael Hernández as leader of the organization in the VI Regional Congress held by the organization last November.
Pérez told reporters, at the end of this first contact, that she has noticed "a lot of availability" from the Government to work on the issues that have been raised, almost a year after the tractorcade that farmers and ranchers of the islands staged to demand solutions to their problems.
After a year "we are still on the same line more or less" and with greater concern about the agreement between the European Union and Mercosur, against which they have already demonstrated and which has led them in Madrid before the Ministry of Agriculture, said the president of COAG, who said that they have asked the Canarian Government to support their fight so that it does not go ahead given the damage it causes to the sector.
The Minister of Agriculture told reporters that it is still necessary to solve the problem of bureaucracy and make progress in achieving a generational change in the countryside.
But after the tractorcade, his department has planned hydraulic works and more than 20 million euros will be invested this year in them and in the purchase of desalination plants to the Island Councils for agricultural use, and has introduced aid and means to encourage the incorporation of young people into this sector.
In addition, payments of aid from the Program of Specific Options for Remoteness and Insularity (Posei) of the EU have been advanced, which was another demand of farmers and ranchers, Quintero stressed.
Of the program to encourage generational change, he said that this year 59 young people have joined the agricultural sector and 24 ranchers, but many more must join and for this reason aid lines of up to 100,000 euros have been created as a non-refundable grant and a business advisory team for five years.
The Minister also recalled that the Canarian Government has conveyed to Brussels its opposition to the agreement with Mecosur.
The new president of COAG has also reported that Rafael Hernández, who is being investigated as the alleged perpetrator of a crime of human trafficking for having illegally employed underage immigrants on his farms, remains in the organization as another member, although she said that work is being done to ensure that this issue does not harm the association.
Pérez said that, after her election, they maintain contact with farmers and ranchers to learn about their problems and that they are the ones who set the dynamics of the association.
Canarian agriculture, besieged by drought, bureaucracy and lack of generational change
The new president of COAG, María del Carmen Pérez, also expressed her concern about the agreement between the EU and Mercosur
