More than half of the current farmers will have retired by the end of this decade, stated Sergio Ballester Caravaca, COAG agricultural technical engineer in El Mirador, during one of the lectures held on Monday in San Javier on the occasion of Rural Women's Day.
This figure is even more worrying when one takes into account that only 3.8% of young people in Spain are at the head of agricultural holdings (compared to 5.1% in Europe). It's a disturbing figure that highlights the lack of generational change in the agricultural sector; one of the main economic drivers of the Region of Murcia.
According to Ballester, this lack of generational change is due to many factors, such as the economic difficulties in acquiring land, the extensive existing agricultural legislature and its application, and the difficult schedules that this trade entails.
However, he stressed, next year the national government will have several grants to facilitate young people's access to the agricultural sector and to boost investment. "We have to renew the countryside because there are many adults in the sector and very few young people," stated Maria Dolores Martinez Martinez, regional secretary of Water and Land, and local manager of San Javier.
All the administrations and entities present agreed on the social and economic importance of this sector, on the criminalization that is affecting it, and on the relevance of women within the rural world.
"Agriculture has been criminalized but farmers shouldn't be scared to say that they are part of the agricultural sector and they should hold their heads up high because we are proving that we are not 100% guilty of what happened with the Mar Menor," Maria Dolores Martinez stressed.
The participants at the event recalled that the National Water Council had been held in Madrid and that the future of the Tagus-Segura Transfer had been discussed at it. "Today is another historic day regarding the threat on the countryside as we know it," stated Jose Miguel Luengo, the mayor of the municipality.
Source: laverdad.es