Cristina Alonso Madrid

Madrid

Updated Tuesday, February 6, 2024-10:44

The Government launches an extraordinary aid package for farmers in the middle of a day of protests. Coinciding with the start of rural mobilizations in Spain, which aim to paralyze the main roads of our country this Tuesday, the Ministry of Agriculture has published the provisional list of almost

140,000 beneficiaries who will receive up to 269 million euros.

This is aid established in Royal Decree-Law 4/2023, of May 11, which benefits natural or legal persons or entities without legal personality, owners of agricultural holdings that are eligible for the receipt of direct aid from the

Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)

in the 2023 campaign and that have dry farmland on their farm, excluding temporary pastures; with irrigated farmland in traditional rice growing areas; and with a certain surface area for the aid associated with the cultivation of industrial tomatoes in recent campaigns.

The department led by

Luis Planas

has published the list of potential beneficiaries of this aid this Tuesday, in the middle of a day of protests led by tractor drivers independent of the main associations in the sector that are causing blockages in many points of the national highway network. The announcement, published on the Ministry's website, involves an amount of

268.7 million euros for 139,756 owners of agricultural holdings

producing dry land, rice and industrial tomatoes, who will be able to receive extraordinary aid to compensate for the difficulties. due to

the drought and the consequences of the war in Ukraine.

Last week, Planas tried to appease the protests called by different means in a meeting with the main agricultural professional organizations. Specifically, last Friday he met with the Agrarian Association of Young Farmers (Asaja), the Coordinator of Farmers and Ranchers Organizations (COAG) and the Union of Small Farmers and Ranchers (UPA). The minister promised to study their demands, but did not convince the representatives of the sector, who maintained the

calendar of mobilizations

, which begins this Thursday, February 8, since the protests that are taking place today have been convened by independent professionals through different social networks.

In any case, this Tuesday the Government made public the granting of this

extraordinary aid for those affected by the drought and the effects of the war in Ukraine.

The list can be consulted on the Ministry's website, which clarifies that "the number of eligible hectares for receiving this aid has been determined ex officio by the Spanish Agrarian Guarantee Fund (FEGA)" and that "the eligible surface area of "dry farming corresponds to the hectares of land, excluding temporary pastures, determined for the receipt of direct aid corresponding to the single application for the CAP 2023". Likewise, "the eligible areas for industrial rice and tomatoes correspond to those in which these crops have not been planted in 2023."

Amount of aid

The definitive unit amounts established by the FEGA,

based on the provisional list of benefits and surfaces published in the provisional resolution, reach the following values: 39.880605 euros per eligible hectare for farms that have most of their surface rainfed cropland, excluding temporary pastures, declared in the 2023 campaign in the provinces classified as areas highly affected by drought.

Of 19.940303 euros per eligible hectare, for farms that have most of their surface area of ​​dry crop land, excluding temporary pastures, declared in the 2023 campaign in the provinces classified as an area of ​​medium impact due to drought .

For rice producers, a unit amount of 186.109491 euros per eligible hectare is established. Furthermore, for industrial tomato producers, a unit amount of 407.668408 euros per eligible hectare is established.

In any case, the Ministry of Agriculture clarifies that "no aid is granted to beneficiaries whose total amount to be received is less than 200 euros."