The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in operation, Luis Planas, stressed today the value of family farming that is the majority worldwide and produces more than 80% of the planet's food, and is key in the fight against climate change and in the maintenance of biodiversity.
The minister who participated today in the act of launching the United Nations Decade for Family Farming, which was celebrated in the framework of the Day of Agriculture and Forests at COP25, recalled that in Spain about 80% of the farms are family and family work accounts for almost 60% of agricultural employment.
For this reason, he explained that many of the actions carried out in Spain and that are being designed for the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) post 2020, are in line with the Global Plan of Action of the Family Farming Decade (2019 -2028) which has just started this year.
We are working, said Planas, to promote farms that are productive, competitive and sustainable, in their triple environmental, economic and social aspects, and we are making a special effort to favor the generational change, increasing support for the incorporation of young farmers.
In addition, the minister pointed out, work is being done to achieve gender equality in access to resources, technology and participation in decision-making, and is committed to improving the economic sustainability of farms favoring associationism, improving balance in the food value chain or by promoting quality figures and local products.
CAP Reform post 2020
Planas has highlighted the role of the Common Agricultural Policy in supporting income and investments that improve farms and transformation and marketing structures.
For this reason, he has affirmed that in the process of reform of the post-2020 CAP, a more just and balanced CAP is defended from the Government of Spain, which supports family farming and in which support is distributed from certain levels of help through the application of "capping" and redistributive payment.
Along these lines, he has assured that the real needs of agriculture are being identified in the work of the Strategic Plan of the CAP, and next year the most appropriate measures will be designed to improve the competitiveness and sustainability of our agriculture, with special attention to Family farms.