SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, June 15 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Cabildo de Tenerife has approved in the Island Government Council the bases and the call for aid for complementary feeding of bees worth 140,000 euros.
The acting Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Javier Parrilla, highlighted in a note that these grants “are part of the Tenerife Beekeeping Strategic Plan, approved in December 2022 and agreed with the sector to respond to their needs and demands”.
The subsidy will be addressed to beekeeping associations and is intended to cover the expenses for the acquisition of specific complementary foods for bees, rich in sugars, proteins and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) that allow improving their nutritional status, reports the Cabildo in a note.
In this sense, Parrilla assures that “beekeeping associations play a vital role in improving the health of hives, and are essential to ensure the homogeneity and cohesion of the health of the island’s beekeeping herd.”
The island manager also maintains that on the island they are “lucky to have a rich and quality variety of honey on the island, which adds value to gastronomy, in addition to the essential pollination work for crops.”
For this reason, he continues, “we must correctly value the production and maintenance of our cabin and protect it in the most difficult moments.”
The lack of rain in recent years has caused a decline in blooms, with low-quality nectar and pollen that has directly influenced the physical state of the bees.
In this way, the lack of food and nutrients has caused weakness in the colonies, which poses a risk to the survival of the hives, even more vulnerable to diseases.
Those beekeepers who have their registered office and carry out their activity on the island, are up to date with their tax obligations, and are made up of owners of beekeeping farms based on the island that are registered in the Register of Farms, may apply for these aids. Ganaderas de Canarias (REGA), at least 12 months before the date of publication of the call in the Official Gazette of the Province.
The credit will be distributed proportionally among the beneficiary associations, based on the number of hives entitled to help that appear in the updated REGA census. In any case, the maximum amount to be received by each entity will be ten euros per hive.
The application model and the bases are available to interested associations at the electronic headquarters of the Cabildo (https://sede.tenerife.es).
Likewise, they may request information on the citizen service telephone number (922 23 95 00), during general hours from Monday to Sunday from 07:00 to 23:00.
The deadline for submitting applications will be 20 business days from the day following the publication of the call in the Official Gazette of the Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
