The regional government has asked the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food for exceptional measures to deal with the extreme drought suffered by the Region of Murcia and also requested new aid for the productive sectors that, due to the enormous weather problems, are endangered agricultural and livestock farms.
The Minister of Water, Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Antonio Luengo, assured this Sunday, during his attendance at the Assembly of the Librilla Irrigation Community, that “given the serious situation that dryland crops and extensive livestock are going through in the Region of Murcia, stemming from a catastrophic situation that occurred in the previous campaign and which has worsened in the present due to the extreme drought that the Region is experiencing, the regional Executive has asked the Government of Spain for a package of measures to prevent that the viability of said exploitations is endangered”.
The head of Agriculture revealed that “the current aid is totally insufficient” and explained that, after meeting at the Autonomous Tables of Nuts and Drought with agricultural organizations and cooperatives, he asked Minister Planas to enable direct aid to dryland almond producers between 250 and 500 euros/hectare, depending on the type of crop, with a maximum of 25,000 euros per farm; and for cereal crops of oats, barley and wheat from 180 to 200 euros/hectare, which would cover production costs without taking harvest costs into account.
For extensive sheep and goat farming, he requested a premium per head of cattle of 30 euros, which would include the cost of feeding the herd exclusively based on feed.
He also called for the establishment of a series of tax measures, among which are the reduction of the Net Return Indices for the 2023 tax period in the objective estimation system of Income Tax, the IRPF; the exemption from the tax on Real Estate of rustic nature; as well as the deferral of Social Security contributions.
In his letter sent to the minister, he also requested the application of the community provisions of force majeure and exceptional circumstances, to make certain eligibility requirements and CAP aid commitments more flexible, especially those referring to monitoring and compliance with related obligations with the eco-regimes derived from the drought situation.
Likewise, it highlighted the need to extend the deadline for submitting applications in this first year of the new CAP, due to the computer problems that have arisen and the new submission model, which would mean, according to data from the sector, the non-processing of a 40 percent of requests.
On the other hand, Luengo requested the authorization of relief irrigation in times of greatest need to avoid the death of the plantations and to obtain minimum yields in the case of almond cultivation.
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