Execute pilot projects to demonstrate best practices in the agricultural field, thus contributing to the ecological transition in agriculture by reducing impacts at source in the Mar Menor basin. That is the purpose of the aid amounting to 20 million euros called by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (Miteco), and which will be managed through the Biodiversity Foundation, an organization attached to the Ministry itself. The text is currently in public participation and until next Tuesday, April 25, contributions can be received.
The details of this call were presented this Friday by the director of the Mar Menor Technical Office, Inmaculada Ramírez, and the Coordinator of the Bioeconomy area of the Biodiversity Foundation, Gemma Rodríguez, during the first session of the Mother Earth conference, organized by the Mare Nostrum Campus in the Los Alcázares town hall.
The objectives of the call are to support the agricultural sector in the agroecological transition through the promotion of the substantial reduction in the use of pesticides and fertilizers and, in general, of agrochemicals; the reduction of irrigation returns, runoff and erosive processes in plots, through the commitment to solutions based on nature; restoration and comprehensive environmental improvement on farms; and support for crop diversification and/or conversion.
The ultimate goal is to contribute to restoring the natural balance of the Mar Menor lagoon and making it compatible with the continuity and increased sustainability of agricultural activity.
This call is regulated by Order TED/818/2021, of July 12, which approves the regulatory bases for the granting of subsidies from the Biodiversity Foundation, under a competitive concurrence regime, for the financing of research and activities that contribute to the ecological transition, to the conservation of the natural heritage and to face climate change.
Within this framework, this call for aid will promote the development of projects that promote a set of actions in the agricultural field, generating knowledge and disseminating good practices.
The aid will be directed towards beneficiaries that group farmers, such as agricultural unions or cooperatives, and that have the capacities and resources to manage this type of aid, so that large-scale projects and transformation capacity can be contemplated. The participation of farmers in these projects, as recipients and beneficiaries of the actions, and their involvement in the transfer of results or the dissemination of knowledge, will be very relevant criteria for the selection of the proposals.
Science must be the basis of the ecological transition and the transformation of the territory. These projects, therefore, must be based on research to find effective, innovative and nature-based solutions to reduce impacts towards the Mar Menor.
For this, a duration (up to three years) and a volume of financing (up to two million euros per project) are allowed, as well as a significant co-financing (up to 90%), sufficient to make this line of aid an opportunity. to promote balance and ecological transition in the area.
In order to guarantee the generation of knowledge and the scientific-technical focus of the actions, the inclusion of a scientific entity or the formation of a scientific committee in the project is required.
In coherence with the lines of action of the Biodiversity Foundation, all projects must integrate the gender perspective, so that the protection of nature is carried out ensuring equal opportunities between women and men.
In the call, ambitious and transforming projects will be sought, with a practical orientation, aimed at solving specific problems and generating solutions and learning. In the preparation of the same, the transcendental collaboration of the agricultural sector has been counted on through the celebration of several technical meetings.
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