The Governing Council of the Cabildo of Lanzarote approved this Monday, October 6, the call for subsidies aimed at winegrowers of the protected area of La Geria, with a total budget of 800,000 euros, co-financed between the Government of the Canary Islands and the Cabildo.
The President and Councillor for Agriculture of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Oswaldo Betancort, emphasized that this is a line of support that is “historic and necessary so that our farmers can continue cultivating in the way that previous generations did.”
"With this call, we provide certainty to our winegrowers, strengthen the profitability of their farms, and guarantee the future of a unique landscape in the world, recognized by the FAO as an Important World Agricultural Heritage System (SIPAM)," Betancort highlighted.
Likewise, the president explained that this aid was created "to compensate for the added effort involved in maintaining a crop as demanding as that of La Geria, where each hole is synonymous with hours of work, conservation of heritage, and identity for Lanzarote." "La Geria is the viticultural heart of our island, with nearly 300,000 holes in production that concentrate more than 75% of Lanzarote's vineyard surface area. Protecting this heritage is ensuring the future of our viticulture and a landscape that identifies us in the world," he noted.
The call for applications, which will be published in the coming days in the Official Bulletin of the Province of Las Palmas, will allow applications for aid to be submitted for 15 business days from the day following publication. It is aimed at natural or legal persons who work the vineyards in the protected natural area of La Geria, under the traditional system of cultivation in holes, and will be paid according to the depth of the holes.
The aid will be calculated based on the depth of the planting pits. Thus, the deepest pits, those over one and a half meters, will receive the highest amount; those of intermediate depth, between one and one and a half meters, will have medium support; while the shallowest pits, between 30 centimeters and one meter, will obtain a smaller amount of aid.
The procedure will be non-competitive, which guarantees that all applicants who meet the requirements will receive the subsidy, within budgetary limits.
As part of this process, the Cabildo of Lanzarote has scheduled an informative meeting with farmers next Monday, October 13, at 6:00 p.m., in the Assembly Hall of the Island Institution, with the aim of explaining in detail the conditions of the call and resolving any doubts that may arise.
