The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO), together with the Biodiversity Foundation, and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA) have held a meeting with representatives of the agricultural sector of the Region of Murcia.
The Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO), together with the Biodiversity Foundation, and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA) have held a meeting with representatives of the agricultural sector of the Region of Murcia: Coordinator of Organizations of Farmers and Ranchers (COAG) Cartagena, Union of Small Farmers and Ranchers (UPA) of Murcia, Agrarian Association of Young Farmers (ASAJA) of Murcia, Association of Producers-Exporters of Fruits and Vegetables of the Region of Murcia (PROEXPORT), Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives of Murcia (FECOAM), Interprofessional Association of Lemon and Grapefruit (AILIMPO), Community of Irrigators of Campo de Cartagena and Community of Irrigators Arco Sur Mar Menor to design a call for aid aimed at farms in the Campo de Cartagena catchment basin, in the Mar Menor area.
In this way, the agricultural sector has been able to expose the needs and opportunities that are detected when it comes to combining the viability of the cultivation areas with the recovery of the lagoon and the conservation of natural resources.
The context of the initiative is developed within the Framework of Priority Actions for the Mar Menor and the Strategic Plan for the Common Agricultural Policy (PEPAC), together with the obligations derived from the specific legislation of the Mar Menor. It is also included in the Plan for the improvement and sustainability of irrigation, within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR).
20 MILLION EUROS IN AID
The MITECO Biodiversity Foundation will be in charge of managing the call, which is in the design phase. The call will have an endowment of 20 million euros and its publication is scheduled for the end of this year.
It is an instrument to comply with the point on Restoration and environmental improvement in agricultural holdings of the Framework of Priority Actions for the Mar Menor, which sets as objectives the limitation of the impacts of agricultural activities, through the substantial reduction of the use of pesticides and fertilizers, the reduction of irrigation returns and the restoration and environmental improvement of the farms.
The aid will finance projects compatible with the recovery of the Mar Menor through measures that integrate a change in the practices most harmful to the soil, water resources and biodiversity. In this way, they incorporate measures and/or types of cultivation that are more respectful of biodiversity and with less demand for nutrients and water.
SHARED CONCLUSIONS
In this sense, the participants in the meeting have agreed on the need to work in a coordinated way with the agricultural sector and maintain an open dialogue. Likewise, the context in which this call must be designed has been recalled to take into account that there are already a series of environmental obligations derived from the specific legislation for the protection and recovery of the Mar Menor, which cannot be subsidized, as well as the framework that the new Strategic Plan for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and its environmental measures will provide.
Among other considerations, the attendees have proposed numerous measures that could have a place in the call and thus contribute to achieving the recovery and conservation of the lagoon while guaranteeing the profitability of agricultural activity, which will be studied and assessed for the design of the call in which the Biodiversity Foundation is immersed.
