The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Acting, Luis Planas, stressed that family farming plays a key role in maintaining the rural population in the most unpopulated areas, at the close of the act of presenting the UPA 2019 Yearbook.
Planas has influenced the interest raised by the topic chosen by the Union of Small Farmers and Ranchers (UPA) for the publication of this year, "A new social commitment with the rural world, another possible future", since, according to the minister, solutions must be provided to the growing gap between the rural and urban world, as well as to the rural depopulation that has worsened in recent years. In this regard, he pointed out that it is a national and European problem.
The Government works for the social, economic and territorial cohesion of the country, highlighted Planas, who has stressed that for the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food is a priority the harmonious and balanced development of the rural environment.
The minister stressed that family farming will be at the center of the next Common Agricultural Policy (PAC) and that this Government defends this production model.
Women and young people, digitalization and sustainable irrigation, keys for the rural future
Planas has highlighted the three priority areas of action: young people and rural women, digital transformation and sustainable irrigation, which make up the so-called "magic triangle" that will help to promote a living rural, dynamic and future.
Spain has managed to incorporate the gender perspective as a specific objective of the future Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and has made this inclusion one of its main demands in the debates in the Council of Ministers of the European Union (EU).
The minister has stressed that it is necessary the generational change to revitalize an aged field, where two thirds of agricultural workers are over 55 years.
Not only for agriculture, but for the economy as a whole, the future passes through the digital transformation.
Sustainable irrigation is the engine of economic and social development of the people. Planas has highlighted the Government's commitment to sustainable irrigation to generate employment and wealth in rural areas.