To answer this question, it is necessary to previously review the number of registers to which farmers are obliged to register in order to carry out their activity professionally. To begin, we can point out, among others, the following registers:
Active farmer registration: It is necessary to be registered to be able to access Posei aid. This requirement must be verified at the beginning of each year.
REAC (Register of Agricultural Holdings of the Canary Islands): It is a tool of the Government of the Canary Islands in which agricultural farms must be registered.
Register of Priority Agricultural Holdings: Intended for holdings that, by meeting certain requirements, can access greater tax benefits.
ROPE (Register of Organic Production Operators of the Canary Islands): which organic farmers and ranchers must observe and register.
ROPAS: Mandatory registration for farmers who market their productions through the Fruit and Vegetable Producer Organizations.
Ropo (Official Register of Producers and Operators of Phytosanitary Defense Means): To belong, one must have the corresponding phytosanitary product handler card (basic or advanced level).
Viticultural Register: Register where plots dedicated to the cultivation of grapevines must be inscribed.
Time Record: When one has contractedfixed workers or on a temporary basis, one has to record, on a daily basis, the time of entry and exit from the workplace.
Remuneration Register: It is a recent requirement that collects the average values of the salaries received by the workers.
National Institute of Statistics: Survey that farmers must compulsorily answer with the data of the plots in exploitation.
SIGPAC (Geographic Information System of Agricultural Parcels): Mechanism that categorizes soils according to the type of crop for which the farm is intended.
Digital Notebook: Although its mandatory nature is postponed, many farmers are already keeping it to get used to its operation.
KORA: Digital application developed by the Government of the Canary Islands as a communication channel with farmers that allows taking georeferenced photographs linked to the files processed before the autonomous administration.
Global GAP and GRAPS: Private certifications required by large supermarket chains to be able to commercialize agricultural productions in said establishments.
This quick review allows concluding that the Canarian farmer no longer only cultivates potatoes, grapes or bananas, but also cultivates files.
Regarding courses, there are mandatory ones such as first aid, occupational risk prevention, food handler, and phytosanitary product license. Others are voluntary, such as young farmers, farm improvement, pruning, compost production, organic farming, or fruit tree grafting. All these courses are aimed at enabling better training for the farmer. Surely we left some course unnamed.
Nor can we fail to mention the different procedures that must be verified before the Social Security (registrations for self-employed, submission of the corresponding RLC and RNT, that is to say the old TC1 and TC2), in Health (sanitary registration), before the State Treasury (quarterly) or the Canarian Treasury (IGIC) and the applications that have to be submitted to the Island Council (each time a territorial qualification is desired) or in the different City Councils (when requesting a license for works).
And, what to say about the innumerable requirements and forms that must be completed each time one applies for a subsidy that forces, on occasion, farmers to desist from their initial request.
Carrying all this documentation forces the farmer to bear an enormous administrative workload that many cannot assume and have to outsource it to consultancies, which entails adding one more expense to the cost of production. It is as affirmed by a large majority to think about continuing to dedicate themselves to agriculture. Furthermore, this dynamic causes that agricultural activity is not at all attractive for young people who want to dedicate themselves to it.
Therefore, it should not be surprising that farmers react with disbelief when they hear the highest European officials state that: “among the main objectives of the European Union is to reduce the administrative obligations currently required of farmers, ranchers, and fishermen.” Reality proves the opposite, because with each passing year the required demands increase, and also more are the procedures that must be fulfilled.
To the initial question, the unanimous response of the farmers is forceful: “there is too much bureaucracy that is unmanageable” and they foresee: “if not corrected, it will end up destroying the primary sector of the Canary Islands”.
