The Ministry of Agriculture of the Cabildo of Lanzarote has presented allegations to the regulatory bases for the granting of subsidies of the Strategic Plan of the CAP 2023-2027 (PEPAC) that seek to increase aid to the agricultural sector, as well as take into account the double insularity or circumvent the digital divide to benefit from these aids.
The allegations were registered on October 6 before the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food Sovereignty of the Government of the Canary Islands, which plans to release the bases of the first call next November with European funding from the EAFRD of 80%, and the regional Executive in the remaining 20%.
The regulatory bases of the PEPAC subsidies intend to differentiate between woody and herbaceous crops, and in turn the latter are subdivided into irrigated or rainfed, granting the lowest premium to rainfed herbaceous crops, which is set at 257 euros per hectare, 393 euros/Ha. less than in the previous program.
"This decision would dramatically affect the producers of jable sweet potato, onion, grains, millet and practically all the traditional crops of Lanzarote that, due to their great adaptation to the environment, are grown in rainfed conditions. We have requested that it be increased to 900/Ha. to encourage this type of varieties", according to the Councilor and President of the Cabildo, Oswaldo Betancort.
The same situation is established with the vineyards, given that the premium for cultivation, in the measure of "integrated production", is set at 319.66/Ha. compared to the rest of the crops that range between 600 and 900 euros per hectare. The allegations presented propose to equate this aid to the rest of fruit trees.
Double insularity and digital divide
The final allegations to the PEPAC 2023-2027 were announced to the representatives of the Lanzarote countryside, which had already been jointly agreed with the Cabildo, at the meeting held this Wednesday at the Experimental Agricultural Farm with the presence of the Director General of Agriculture of the Government of the Canary Islands, Javier Gutiérrez, and the Director of the Canarian Institute of Agri-Food Quality, Luis Arráez.
Another of the allegations presented by the Island Agricultural Service of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, in the section on investments in transformation, modernization (purchase of tractors, irrigation, milking machines, etc.) and marketing, refers to double insularity and requests to expand the assessment criteria of the smaller islands, from one to five points.
The digital divide is another contribution from the Cabildo of Lanzarote, given that the program implements electronic processing as the only way to apply for subsidies, the Cabildo considers the creation of a "Registry of collaborating entities" as an essential condition so that it is not necessary for farmers to have an electronic signature to apply for these aids, being able to apply through that Registry in which the Farm itself or the Wine Regulatory Council would be.