UAGR asks to transfer to the Ministry “the serious situation” of La Rioja due to the drought

Representatives of the Union of Farmers and Ranchers met this Thursday with the Government delegate in La Rioja, Beatriz Arraiz, to convey to her “the serious impact that the drought is causing on Rioja’s extensive crops” and to request that she “transmit this situation to the Department of agriculture”. “A large part of Rioja’s extensive crops, especially dry land crops, are not going to come to fruition due to the lack of rain in winter and spring,” they warned from UAGR.

As they explained in the quote, “although in some areas, and especially for the woody areas, the spring rains still arrived in time to save the campaign, in the case of the extensive areas there are many Rioja towns where they already arrived late, so “The harvest in thousands of hectares will not be possible, while in many others it will not be enough to even cover the high production costs (1,000 to 1,200 euros per hectare).”

Accumulated losses

The organization warned that this is a situation that is being repeated in recent campaigns, “so that there are farmers who are facing this second (and even third) year of losses.”

For all these reasons, the Union demanded that the Government Delegation in La Rioja transfer to the Ministry “on the one hand, the urgency in publishing direct aid due to the drought for affected professional farmers and ranchers.” And, on the other hand, that “from the MAPA the exceptionality due to drought in La Rioja is processed before the European Commission, so that the direct aid that is approved both state and regionally does not count in the ‘minimum’ regime”, a fundamental aspect. so that professional farmers are not excluded from aid.