The Valencian Association of Farmers (AVA-ASAJA) denounces a robbery perpetrated at dawn from Thursday to Friday in the community of irrigators in sector IV of the Júcar-Turia Canal, located in the municipality of Picassent, that has looted, in search of revalued metals such as copper, all the technological facilities necessary for the irrigation of the exploitations.
According to the complaint filed by the aforementioned irrigation entity before the Civil Guard, direct economic losses amount to 30,000 euros, which include the breaking of doors, perimeter fences and the electrical equipment themselves. However, AVA-ASAJA adds the negative consequences that this abduction may also end up causing by leaving a thousand farmers in the area without being able to irrigate nor carry out adequate fertilization on a surface close to the 8,000 hectares of cultivation -principally citrus, persimmons, kiwis and avocados–During the days that elapse until the repair of the dismantled equipment is completed, since These agricultural tasks are essential in the current period of the year to guarantee a correct growth of the fruits.
Rise in raw materials
AVA-ASAJA alerts that the rising cost of various raw materials such as copper and iron in international markets in recent months, due to the economic repercussions of the pandemic, threatens to multiply robberies in the agricultural sector, a scourge that in 2020 alone accounted for 25 million losses for Valencian farmers and ranchers.
The president of AVA-ASAJA, Cristóbal Aguado, affirms that “Thieves destroy crops that have good prices, such as avocado or carob, take iron gates, enter country huts, break fences if necessary, there are those who have extensive knowledge in irrigation equipment why manipulate them carries a high risk of electrification.
There are partners who tell me that they are not going to plant in a plot near the town simply because they fear that the thieves will take everything before they go to collect. We are talking about a problem as serious as low prices or damage to wildlife, on which the administrations are failing and, instead of providing solutions, they try to confuse public opinion by saying that robberies are decreasing: complaints are decreasing because most farmers understand that they are useless, but robberies they are still alarming ”.
Thus, Aguado calls for greater vigilance both in the farms and at the points of reception of stolen goods and, To improve these tasks, it urges the incorporation of the use of new technologies. It also reiterates a hardening of penalties “So that there is justice in the countryside and rural crime does not continue to go unpunished.”
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