Twenty institutions, organizations and town councils will share 16.2 million euros for the agroecological transition and environmental recovery of the Mar Menor, as reported this morning by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition. The Biodiversity Foundation has resolved the call for aid for environmental restoration and improvement in the agricultural field, in order to develop a total of eleven “strategic and innovative projects over three years, led by organizations in the agricultural sector, research organizations, city councils and private non-profit entities,” says the Ministry.
Various entities in the agricultural sector will share some 3.6 million euros, among them the Community of Irrigators of the Cartagena countryside, which will receive 1.7 million for the renaturalization of the irrigation ponds around the Mar Menor. On the agricultural side, the official list of aid also includes the Lemon and Grapefruit Interprofessional (Ailimpo), Coag-Rural Initiative, Adea-Asaja, Proexport and the Federation of Agrarian Cooperatives (Fecoam).
Among the entities dedicated to research, the Ministry will subsidize various projects from the University of Murcia, the Polytechnic of Cartagena, Cebas, CSIC, Imida and the National Institute for Agrarian and Food Research. In this section, the amounts add up to around 6.7 million euros.
Likewise, the municipalities of Cartagena and San Javier will be able to develop three projects for 3.8 million euros. Other institutions that will receive aid are Anse (528,000 euros), the Estrella de Levante Foundation (110,000), the Official College of Agricultural Engineers (1,980 euros), the Spanish Society of Organic Agriculture (665,000), the Foundation for Climate Research ( 158,000), the Sierra Minera Foundation (574,000 euros), and the El Mirador Agricultural Association (2,700 euros)
The Ministry considers that these projects “represent an unprecedented opportunity to promote the restoration of the natural balance of the area in a manner compatible with the sustainability of agricultural activity.” This first call complies with the commitment to reduce impacts at source contained in the Framework of Priority Actions to recover the Mar Menor (MAPMM). The 16.2 million granted will finance 90% of the cost of the projects.
«The call is based on the premise that the agroecological transition requires the involvement of all social actors, with farmers as a fundamental part of the solution. Therefore, among the beneficiaries of these projects are organizations that represent key sectors, such as entities in the agricultural sector, universities and other research organizations, city councils and private non-profit entities,” emphasizes the Ministry.
Good agricultural practices
The projects will address issues such as the implementation of good agricultural practices that lead to an improvement in soil and water management and the reduction of pollutants, including the promotion of ecological, regenerative agriculture or agroecology. Actions will also be carried out to develop new techniques and protocols to reduce the contribution of nitrates and the use of biosolutions in fertilization in crops, as well as the implementation of solutions based on nature, such as the renaturation of spaces with a retention and filtering function. green water, to prevent erosion and flooding problems.
“Thanks to this call for aid, we will work with the agricultural sector in the development of biofertilization treatments with products of plant origin, taking advantage of crop remains or dairy derivatives from the cheese industry,” he explains. Rainfed crops will also be converted, demonstrating their added value, and demonstrative agroecological models will be developed, among other practices. In addition, plant barriers or hedges will be used on agricultural plots, demonstrating their contribution to reducing erosion or other nature-based solutions, such as a green filter consisting of barley cultivation.
The actions of these projects will cover more than 1,000 hectares of direct intervention in the Mar Menor watershed with implementation of actions at the plot level. Likewise, importance has been given to the transfer of results and learning to farmers and, according to the projects, it is estimated that with the advisory and transfer actions, 30,000 hectares will be reached.
Strategic value
With all this, according to the Ministry, the aim is to obtain ambitious results in aspects such as the reduction of contributions of agrochemicals and organic fertilizers, the reduction of irrigation returns and erosive processes, the increase in soil quality, the reduction of demand for water resources and general environmental and biodiversity improvement in the agricultural area of the Mar Menor watershed.
«Therefore, these are initiatives of great strategic value that start from the local actors involved and that pursue objectives aligned with the European Green Deal and, specifically, with the Farm to Fork Strategy and the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030. », explains the statement.
The design of the aid has had, since its beginning, the collaboration and participation of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA) and representatives of the agricultural sector.
The projects selected in this initiative, which responds to the commitment of those responsible for MITECO with the representatives of the primary sector, will begin to be executed in January 2024 and will last three years, until December 2026.
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