The lack of young people to take over from retiring farmers is becoming a more pressing problem in the Valencian Community than in the restaurant in Spain. One of the indicators, as revealed by La Unió Llauradora i Ramadera, shows that in this case half of the professionals who receive direct aid from the CAP (Common Agrarian Policy) are over 65 years of age, ten percentage points more than the national average .
Is more, if more opens the age range, 95% of beneficiaries are over 40 years of age, according to a study prepared by this agricultural and livestock organization based on 2021 data from the Spanish Agrarian Guarantee Fund (FEGA).
This figure of 49,68% of recipients over 65 years of age contrasts with the state average of 39,1%. The Community is the autonomous community with the most recipients over this age in all of Spain, above the Balearic Islands (48,01%), Navarra (46,38%), the Canary Islands (44,56%), Madrid (44,03%), %) and Catalonia (42,10%). Cantabria only has 10,81% of recipients over 65 years of age and Castilla y León 31,56%.
Collectors between 40 and 65 years old represent 45,25% in the Community, but between 25 and 40 years old they are only 4,66% of the total number of farmers and those under 25 years of age who remain in a testimonial 0,41%, details the agrarian organization in a press release.
The Community is the last autonomous community with male recipients in the French from 25 to 40 years old and the penultimate with the fewest young recipients of direct aid from the CAP under 25 years of age, only surpassed by the Canary Islands.
For the Unió, these data show that the region has "a clearly aging agricultural population and that is why the Generalitat should make an effort to professionalize it to guarantee the future of the agricultural sector". For this reason, he has been calling for the prioritization of aid to professionals for a long time.
Claims to the governments of Puig and Sánchez
It is something that has already been transferred to both the Ministry and the Ministry of Agriculture, through proposals during the CAP negotiations that came into force on January 1, among them that direct aid was directed to professional farmers and ranchers and agricultural SMEs, regardless of the sector where they are framed and of the history of aid generated.
There will also be a relaxation of the conditions for access to the national reserve of basic payment for young professionals in agriculture and livestock. Other of the measures formulated by the entity was that the complementary redistributive aid allocated 15% of the budgets to professional farmers.
