Monday, June 10, 2024, 1:49 p.m.
There are young strains, just over ten years old, that are in the ICU. Dry and without buds, without the possibility of growing grapes for the late summer harvest. The lack of rainfall has cracked them, and if water falls from the sky again, production may not resume for four or five years. There is little work to do in the dry lands of the Region of Murcia these days. Almond trees damaged by drought, olive trees that gasp for rain and farmers with plots of just over ten hectares who face the situation with mobilizations.
This Monday, more than fifty dryland producers from the Altiplano region have gone down to Murcia to camp in front of the Government Delegation, in the Chinese Garden, and next to the San Esteban Palace. The headquarters of the central and regional governments in the Community will serve as a camp, at least this Monday and perhaps for a few more days, for professionals who are experiencing their worst years in their fields. “They are lifelong farmers, with family farms, who have been left without planting cereal, or with dry vineyards, not without leaves or grapes, but dry,” comments Urbano Pérez, spokesperson for the Southeast Association against Manipulation. of the weather.
This recently created entity is the official organizer of the protest in the city of Murcia, although behind it there are many partners from the main agricultural organizations in Yecla and Jumilla (COAG, Asaja and UPA). Its purpose is for the Segura Hydrographic Confederation, the Civil Guard and the Department of Agriculture to try to confront the administrations and the police to stop the use of anti-hail cannons. They ask the central government for specific legislation on these devices which, remember, do not have the approval of the State Meteorological Agency as they do not have real effects on ice boulders.
“We want, first of all, that the situation be declared a catastrophic zone due to the Drought in the Altiplano,” Pérez denounces, but the issue goes much further. The rapid growth of irrigated crops in this region, with the overexploitation of aquifers and the transformation of the landscape, impacts “traditional crops and the way of life” of primary activity in these municipalities, explains a farmer who stands guard. in Saint Stephen. Pergolas, camping tents, portable tables, beach chairs and a good amount of food and drink accompany the protesters.
The dryland has come to Murcia with a letter of demands, which include the need to enable direct aid for crops and replanting due to the loss of trees. Relief risks are another debate, long demanded, but which has not yet been resolved between the CHS and the Community. This Monday, both administrations will meet again to analyze the issue.
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