THIS REDUCTION WILL MEANS “A BRAKE IN THE MODERNIZATION OF EXPLOITATIONS”.
The proposal of the Government of the Canary Islands to reduce the budget in the Area of ​​Agriculture, Livestock and Fishing 17,89%, represents “a new blow for a sector that looks in disbelief at how its president and his area advisor, while in public appearances they cite the primary sector as key to the diversification of the Canarian economy, they tease the producers, with a spending proposal that condemns the primary sector to ostracism”, assures the Coordinator of Farmers and Livestock Organizations (COAG) Canary Islands.

According to Rafael Hernández, president of COAG-Canary Islands, “The budget in the area of ​​Agriculture and Livestock of the Government of the Canary Islands has been reduced by almost one 50% in just three years. From the agrarian organization they tell the Minister of Environment and Agriculture that, “If you defend your commitment to agricultural activity in this way, We farmers are also going to ask to be included in the catalog of protected species”.

For the COAG, This reduction will represent “a brake on the modernization of farms.”, and a drastic cut in the amounts of research and promotion of quality that make it possible for Canarian farms to be viable”. In addition, emphasizes that “for every euro that the Canary Islands government puts in, the European Union added six co-financed, so if the Canary Islands do not provide the budget item that corresponds to them, “We will be losing the money that comes from Brussels”.

Regarding the Specific Options Program due to remoteness and insularity (Posei), Rafael Hernández, says that “Paulino Rivero has been systematically deceiving ranchers, winegrowers and fruit and vegetable producers of the Islands, committing to the payment of aid from the year 2009, without that, to this day, the producers have been able to collect them”.

In this sense, points out in a statement that while the central government has fulfilled its commitments within the framework of this support program (which implies an item in the budgets for 2011 of the State), The Government of the Canary Islands “has laughed at us”. The budget presented for 2011, “in which there is no trace of the Posei, certifies the contempt of the regional president and his Environmental Advisor with whom we work the land”.

Regarding the new Minister of Agriculture, Domingo Berriel, The president of COAG-Canarias points out that “this man seems to be confused in his new functions, overcome by circumstances and absorbed by the tasks it has in the area of ​​environment and territorial policy. Hernández requests that “not assume the current budget proposal and that, before doing it, present your resignation”.