The City Council of La Laguna and Asaga Canarias Asaja yesterday celebrated Plowing Day to make visible the joint work they are doing to recover agricultural land through the cultivation of forage for cattle, thus reactivating abandoned farms, while helping self-sufficiency of livestock farms.
The initiative brought together farmers and ranchers yesterday in Los Baldíos, who carried out a demonstration of preparing the land for sowing, both by mechanical means and by the traditional system of yoke of oxen, in a 6,000-square-meter plot made available by Muvisa, and to which other public lands will be added.
A day with which “we are making visible the importance of recovering the agricultural land of the municipality and, specifically, for the cultivation of fodder, because we have a livestock sector that is important, especially in terms of the Canarian breed, which we want to protect and to conserve for its triple attitude: meat, dairy and for work”, affirmed the Councilor for Rural Development, Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Aitor López. “With this we want to strengthen the agricultural and livestock sector -he continued-, depend less on foreign countries and guarantee our food security and sovereignty”, since, at present, “we depend a lot on foreign countries and what we import is becoming more and more expensive”, argued the mayor.
For his part, the general secretary of Asaga Canarias Asaja, Theo Hernando, explained that this project is being developed through a group called Semilla, which brings together “farmers, ranchers and researchers from the ICIA, professors from the ULL and other areas” , and in which training is offered on the cultivation of forage for the self-sufficiency of the farms. And that is reflected on this land in Los Baldíos, which “was cleaned in April, now they are plowing it so that in October they can sow it among several and then harvest it and distribute the forage among their animals.”
Theo Hernando denounced that “in Tenerife we may be talking about the fact that less than 30% of the arable land is being cultivated” and, in addition, the levels of disappearance of livestock farms and slaughter of animals are being “dramatic”. “Around 3-4 farms a week are closing down,” he noted. The mayor of La Laguna put the positive note by adding that, in the municipality, “there has been a slight upturn in the cultivated area in recent years, and we want to work to consolidate it.”
