The Renovating Movement of Tinajo reproaches the mayor, Jesús Machín, and his government group for "the indifference they have been showing towards the primary sector of the municipality throughout the mandate".
“A lot of propaganda, a lot of photos, a lot of words of good intentions, but the reality is that the primary sector is still having a bad time, it has had a very bad time during the pandemic, and they have not executed a single initiative to help it”, questioned the councilor and president of the MRT, Antonio Morales.
The party recalls that "since the beginning of 2020 it has been presenting initiatives to the Plenary to support this key sector" in the municipality, "but the mayor has ignored them all".
Among other things, the Renovating Movement requested that the General Plan of Tinajo be approved, which is what would allow regulating the spaces to implement alternative energies or to set up companies for the transformation of products, such as wine, cheese, jams or liqueurs; as well as classifying the types of soil where new livestock farms could be set up, for example.
“The General Plan is vital and to this day we have no information of any kind about what situation it is in”, Morales laments.
The councilman reproaches the mayor for also rejecting his initiatives to promote training for the primary sector. “It is very important for them to become professionalized, because among other things, Europe marks it in its agricultural policies. We are talking about guidance to make companies linked to the sector profitable, as well as positioning the product in the market, as a unique and quality brand”, details Morales, who insists on the need to “promote the product in all places where possible”.
In addition, the MRT recalls that the mayor "has not lifted a finger either" with the water problem. “Now we all know why, because he owed more than 80,000 euros to Canal Gestión, and that is why in all this time he had not raised his voice or requested the convocation of the Water Consortium to defend the residents of the municipality of Tinajo and mainly the primary sector”, they point out.
Morales denounces that the problem of water cuts is also added to the elimination of the direct subsidy that existed for the primary sector. “In my time as a councilor of the Cabildo, aid was applied to the primary sector”, recalls the president of the MRT, who emphasizes that this discount was applied directly to the water bill, with different rates for professional and non-professional agricultural water.
“Now, since the beginning of the year, that direct aid was eliminated. And supposedly they have been told that they are going to put it at the end of the year, that they are going to pay that aid, but that is going to be a problem”, warns Antonio Morales. And it is that "when it becomes a nominated subsidy, the farmer or rancher will have to declare it to the Treasury, because it is an income”, he adds.
“We do not understand how the mayor has not worried about this issue, taking into account that he has known about this problem for a long time”, criticizes Antonio Morales.
In addition, he adds that if the subsidy is given to them at the end of the year, “not everyone has the economic capacity to withstand the pulse and withstand that pressure” until they give them the subsidy. “There it is seen that they do not want to bet on the primary sector”, he denounces.
Morales emphasizes that "these are just some of the examples of the abandonment to which they are subjecting the sector, which is suffering very hard cost overruns due to inflation, in basic issues such as electricity, fuel or supplies, but nevertheless continues to sell the product at the same price or even below the prices prior to the pandemic".
As an example, he also cites the situation of a tractor that is stopped. “In a time like this, in which the sector needs it to eliminate weeds and prepare the farms for planting, the tractor is not available to farmers”, he laments.
In addition, he insists on the grievance that "this neglect of the mayor towards a sector that has played a fundamental role" in the history of the municipality of Tinajo. “Thanks to the work carried out by the people who dedicate themselves to the primary sector, the product is of the highest quality, and in recent times it is having international recognition by gastronomic experts and people knowledgeable in the matter”, Morales highlights.
