Official visit to the Valencian Community

Luis Planas: The Government guarantees that farmers will have the water they need for irrigation

2023.1.26

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The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, has sent a message of reassurance to farmers about irrigation in Valencia. "I want to say loud and clear that the Government of Spain guarantees our irrigators that they will be able to continue to irrigate in the future, despite the circumstances and the climate change we are facing," he said.

After holding a meeting with the president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Ximo Puig, the minister explained that sustainable irrigation is essential for maintaining sufficient agricultural production. In Spain, 23.6% of the cultivated area is irrigated, 3.8 million hectares, but this is also where more than 65% of total production is obtained because irrigation triples the profitability of crops.

The challenge is how to maintain and increase food production with less consumption of natural resources. To this end, Luis Planas pointed out that the obligation of any responsible government committed to agriculture is to provide sufficient bodies of water to maintain irrigation. The minister stressed a message of "commitment, tranquillity and security" backed by investments of more than €22 billion in actions in the basins. In a context of declining surface and groundwater resources due to a 12% decrease in rainfall since 1980, we will have to use non-conventional water such as reclaimed and desalinated water, he explained.

The minister reiterated the government's firm commitment to the modernisation of sustainable irrigation, with an investment package of more than €2.1 billion until 2027, which is historically unprecedented. The aim is to achieve greater efficiency in both water use and energy consumption in irrigation networks by incorporating alternative sources.

A large part of these investments is included in the Plan for Recovery, Transformation and Resilience, which is allocating €563 million of Next GenerationEU funds to modernising irrigation systems. The Valencian Community is the third largest beneficiary of this plan, with €86.3 million distributed among seven actions, plus an additional €16.5 million.

As part of the extraordinary support measures for the agricultural sector, put in place by the government to mitigate the difficulties stemming from the war in Ukraine, and focused mainly on the increase in production costs and the drought, the minister highlighted the €37.9 million in aid paid to the citrus sector, of which two thirds, €24 million, has gone to 26,800 Valencian producers, due to the repercussions in the Valencia region.

The meeting with the president of the Generalitat also addressed issues such as the application of the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which in this community involves annual aid of around €150 million for more than 46,000 farmers and stockbreeders. The minister pointed out that the new CAP contains very positive aspects for the Valencian Community, such as the right to aid for part-time farming, support without budgetary limits for the programmes of fruit and vegetable producer organisations, and associated aid for rice and traditional olive groves in Castellón.

After his meeting with the President of the Generalitat, the Minister received the honorary trustee's smock of the Tribunal de las Aguas de la Vega de Valencia, the oldest existing institution of justice in Europe. The day's agenda will be completed this afternoon with a visit to the Viver cooperative (Castellón). Tomorrow, Friday, Luis Planas will be in Benicarló, where he will visit the Town Hall, the Benihort cooperative and the fish market, where he will convey to the fishing sector his commitment to extend the extraordinary aid to compensate for the days of stoppage dictated by the European Commission. Last year, the 575 Mediterranean purse seiners received €16 million in aid.

Non official translation