The technical complexities of some measures of the standard and the adaptation of farms to the requirements of this force a strong economic investment by producers, according to COAG. At a technical level, it is proving impossible to apply in the field of Cartagena some measures contemplated in the articles of the Law of Recovery and Protection of the Mar Menor. The obligation to install humidity sensors and tensiometers, the implementation of plant barriers or the preparation of analytical reports that record parameters such as soil moisture, organic matter and the use of fertilizers is making it difficult for agricultural farms to adapt to what it requires. the regulations of the lagoon.
So much so that, depending on the agricultural area owned, each farmer on average has spent 15,000 euros to ensure that their activity and production adapt to the law. For larger farms, since the legislation was approved, the investment can reach the order of 40,000 or 50,000 euros. These data registered by the agricultural organization COAG show for the sector the technical complexity that the article of the regulations approved in July of last year has, and for this they ask for solutions.
Until now, says Vicente Carrión, president of COAG Cartagena, the organization has had meetings with the Popular Party, Ciudadanos and Vox, and even with some socialist leaders, to put the technical complexities of the regulations on the table. The representatives of the primary sector in the countryside of Cartagena were not very in favor of the approval of the law after the agreement reached by PP, PSOE and Cs, and even attacked the rule claiming that it was not subject to scientific and technical criteria. Months after getting ahead, they now highlight this difficulty, for example, in the installation of monitoring systems by sensors, control and monitoring of fertilization by irrigation and for the measurement of nitrogen and phosphorus. “Not all farmers have access to these devices. We are talking about an average farmer who does not have so many economic resources.
The implantation of plant barriers or nutrient retention surfaces also creates difficulties. 5% of each exploitation, whether in zone 1 or 2 that the law delimits the watershed, must be allocated to a green filter, plant structures, plant covers, bioreactors, etc. The width and distance of roads or highways, as well as gutters, can ‘steal’ several square meters of agricultural land, COAG points out, but their difficulty lies in the criteria when planting these barriers, which sometimes collide with the limitations of having vehicular traffic routes nearby. Added to this is the “obligation to put wildlife nets on plant barriers, since the law requires you to keep them in good condition, and the difficulty of having rabbit and rodent pests now is added.”
Technician hiring
The consulting firm associated with the organization of COAG has had to reinforce the staff of its offices in the Cartagena field to answer the questions of the farmers. This is a “symptom” of how complicated the law is to apply it, points out Francisco Gil, general secretary of COAG. The hiring of technicians or famous agri-environmental operators by producers to monitor compliance with the law on farms is also “another expense that we must take into account.”
From COAG they emphasize that, in response to their requests, both parties and the Ministry of Agriculture leave the door open to a modification of the article if it is found that it is impossible to put it into practice.
“The fertilizer I use is anything but cheap to comply with the analyzes”
“This is like a building in which the sewer has broken, and the one who has to pay for the repair is the one who lives on the first floor.” The metaphor of Salvador Mellinas, a farmer from the Cartagenas countryside with several farms between Los Urrutias and El Algar, highlights the financial investment to adapt to the norm. It grows, depending on the annual season, lettuce, potatoes and melons in different plots, and in between its spending has been increased by the purchase of “more sustainable fertilizer that is anything but cheap to comply with the analytics that they ask us” . The limitations in the use of fertilizers cause it to “produce less quantity”, which generates “a progressive economic loss”.
In many farms, he points out, they are counting every day records on the use of subscriber or irrigation to carry out analyzes and a follow-up so that “nothing escapes”, and this implies the hiring of more personnel to “keep those records” as a brand the law. The plant barriers that he planted have already been in place for at least a couple of years and, taking into account all that planting cost, plus the adaptation to a standard “that clashes with reality”, Salvador estimates that he could have lost 150,000 euros. He adds to this the loss of a plot that is located within the strip of the first 1,500 meters of the lagoon, so he maintains a cereal crop that for him is ruinous, but he has decided to allocate it to an investigation that leads to carried out by the Ministry of Agriculture.
Source: laopiniondemurcia.es
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