SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Sep 30 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of the Government of the Canary Islands, through the Canarian Institute of Agrifood Quality (ICCA), has announced the subsidies provided for in the Rural Development Program (PDR) aimed at maintaining organic farming practices and methods for the 2021 campaign, which includes funds of 53,400 euros corresponding to the part 15% co-financed by the State and the Autonomous Community.
The main objective of these grants is to promote the maintenance of the application of organic farming methods, including livestock, ensuring long-term sustainable agriculture and the protection of natural resources. The deadline for submitting applications to benefit from these grants ends on October 20.
As a novelty for this year, a new call for aid is opened for petitioners who assume the commitments for a period of two years (2021-2022), which will allow the incorporation of a greater number of beneficiaries. In this sense, the amounts of aid per area are increased, applying new modulation or correction factors for area intervals.
This measure includes the aid destined, on the one hand, to the maintenance of organic farming per hectare in organic production for dry and irrigated herbaceous crops, rainfed fruit trees, pip fruit trees, stone fruit trees, citrus fruits, bananas, vegetables al open air, Horticultural crops under greenhouse, vineyard, and tomato, and on the other hand, to the maintenance of ecological agriculture per hectare in the production of forages and grains for animal feed. Finally, it contributes to the maintenance of organic livestock per head of livestock referred to the hectare of grazing that makes up the farm.
The director of the ICCA, Basilio Pérez, pointed out that this call “contributes to establishing and maintaining a sustainable management system for agriculture”, and pointed out that these subsidies “promote agricultural practices such as the non-use of phytosanitary products and synthetic fertilizers, crop rotation, the use of organic fertilizers, and the adequate livestock load, which promote, among other positive actions, the improvement of the soil and water quality; the mitigation and adaptation to climate change; the recovery and increasing the biological activity of the soil, or preventing erosion and improving the biodiversity of the environment “.
