From this week, the subsidies for livestock and agriculture of the Cabildo de Lanzarote expand the eligible concepts and the type of beneficiaries, as well as the incentives for production and the inclusion of aid aimed at apicultural and asnal species, among others.
The modifications have been approved in the Plenary Session of the Cabildo de Lanzarote in ordinary plenary session, with the unanimous support of all political formations.
The president of the Cabildo, Oswaldo Betancort, whose competences include Agriculture and Livestock, has recalled that these improvements have been introduced after numerous meetings with farmers and ranchers, “a time during which we have detected a series of deficiencies that needed to be corrected and that, now, with the modification of the subsidy bases we managed to optimize”.
The island's president has detailed that in recent months the concepts eligible for subsidies in the various lines of aid managed by the Corporation have been expanded, “with the aim of strengthening the primary sector” in Lanzarote and La Graciosa.
The regulatory bases for the agricultural and livestock sector in a competitive concurrence regime include six lines of aid. Already in September of last year, line 1 was convened for operating expenses in agricultural holdings, through which more than 522,000 euros were granted; while in line 2 for operating expenses of livestock farms almost 1.4 million euros were injected into the sector.
About 150 donkeys censused
The Cabildo de Lanzarote has carried out the modification of the bases based on the mandatory technical reports that argue each and every one of the novelties introduced. And so, the Corporation's initiative will make it possible to give a greater amount of subsidy to professional farmers and ranchers in all existing agricultural aid lines.
Likewise, collecting the suggestions of the professionals of the sector, the new bases have managed to expand the eligible concepts of lines 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, “a way to adapt to the changes in the profiles that have suffered those who structure the sector”, noted the president of the Cabildo.
In addition, the Institution extends the type of beneficiaries of line 5 of subsidies for transformation, packaging and marketing so that any company that produces local products can apply for them.
Another of the innovations introduced is the possibility of requesting these island aid by legal entities with registered offices outside Lanzarote and La Graciosa, as long as the activity subject to subsidy is carried out on these islands.
Finally, among the modifications promoted by the councils of Agriculture and Livestock of the Cabildo de Lanzarote for the distribution of economic support in a competitive concurrence regime is the inclusion of apicultural and asnal species, something that until now had not been taken into account.
Lanzarote and La Graciosa currently have about 150 donkeys censused, according to data handled by the Insular Agrarian Service. Beekeeping, meanwhile, is located mainly in the northern area of the Lanzarote geography.
