The Canary Islands has proposed to the Ministry of Agriculture to incorporate changes in the subsidies of the Strategic Plan of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to the installation of young farmers and ranchers to make the access conditions to these funds more flexible and facilitate their incorporation into agricultural activity.
The proposal was made during the last Sectoral Conference on Agriculture and Fisheries held in Pamplona. The idea is to incorporate changes in the requirements to qualify for aid from the CAP Strategic Plan for the incorporation of young people into the primary sector.
The Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food Sovereignty of the Government of the Canary Islands, Narvay Quintero, recalled that the aging of the agricultural population is one of the main challenges facing rural areas of the EU, "hence the importance of promoting effective measures to guarantee generational replacement."
In addition, the Canary Islands Executive proposed to the Ministry to facilitate a second modification of the Plan, as established by European regulations, "in order to achieve a better adaptation of the program to the circumstances and needs of the primary sector and a greater execution of the same and advance in simplification and the elimination of bureaucracy."
In Spain, while the agricultural employed population in the period 2009-2021 increased by 2.9%, the population of young employed people decreased by 11%. The group of owners of agricultural holdings over 65 years of age represents 41.3% (2020 agricultural census) while only 8.9% are under 41 years of age.
The main limiting factors for young people to enter agricultural activity are the difficulties of access to land (an aspect that is aggravated in the islands where the territory is more limited), credit and financing, bureaucratic obstacles, lack of adequate training, specific advice in the installation process and living conditions in rural areas.
