As the days go by after the devastating frosts that have devastated the production of sweet and dried fruit in the province, the demands for improvements in agricultural insurance also grow. This was revealed yesterday in two farmers’ assemblies organized by JARC in Alcarràs and by Asaja in Lleida. But also by the Minister of Agriculture, Teresa Jordà, who stated in an interview on TV3 that agricultural insurance “is not adapted to climate change or to specific areas”.
In this context, representatives of Junts in Congress and the Senate met yesterday with representatives of the fruit sector and cooperatives and announced that they will demand in the Upper House a change in the Agroseguro model that takes into account, they explained, the farmers and the territory. Esquerra, for his part, will request the appearance of the Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas, in the Senate so that he can give an account of the measures that he plans to take to deal with the crisis caused by the frosts. He will also present motions in support of the farmers in the town halls of the affected areas.
The Minister insisted that the Government will work to find ways to guarantee the liquidity of the sector. “As a country, we cannot allow ourselves to stop cultivating an inch of land, a fruit campaign occupies 70,000 people,” said Jordà. In the assemblies held yesterday, she informed the farmers of the demands that are being made to the administrations and that largely go through the improvement of frost insurance.
They criticize the franchise of 30%, that the damages are calculated for the entire farm and that in case of having suffered frost in previous campaigns, the insurable production is limited. But they also insisted on the demand for direct and urgent aid so that the peasants can meet the costs of farms that in the best of cases will hardly have production. Likewise, tax rebates are urgently needed, support credits for power plants and cooperatives at low interest and with guarantees from the Generalitat and ERTEs that avoid layoffs of permanent and discontinuous permanent personnel.
All this while today a meeting of the Salvem la Pagesia platform with the sub-delegate of the Government, José Crespín, is scheduled.
–
