GISA WAS CREATED BY AGREEMENT OF THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS LAST MARCH.

The General Secretary of Rural Environment, Alicia Villauriz, and representatives of the Ministries of Economy and Finance, Industry, Tourism and Commerce, Promotion and Science and Innovation, have met at the MARM headquarters to continue the work being carried out by the Interministerial Group for the Agri-Food Sector (AS), which was established last April within the framework of the Shock Plan for this sector.

GISA's work has been developed around renewable energy policies, establishing the need to disseminate between the producing sector and the processing industry, the initiatives that are being carried out by the Ministry of Science and Innovation on the incorporation of biofuels, biogas and solid biomass in relation to the agri-food sector and rural areas, analyzed the way in which these energies can be directed to benefit the agri-food sector and the way in which the rural environment can provide added value to them..

In this sense, GISA has debated the creation of the figure of Agricultural Exploitation Producing Renewable Energy (EAPER), analyzing its definition, the minimum requirements that farms must meet to be classified as such, and about the incentives that, in your case, they could enjoy.

The situation of Biofuels has also been discussed., issue that had already been studied in previous meetings of the Table on Agricultural Raw Materials and Biofuels. About this matter, The Secretary General of the MARM has explained to the representatives of the affected ministries the diagnosis of the situation and the main requests of the sector, identifying short and medium term possibilities.

In this same line, Biogas production and the possibility of considering digestion biogas as a source of renewable energy have also been analyzed., beyond its environmental component.

Finally, The issue of solid biomass for energy uses has been addressed, and the possibility of promoting and developing its use from the administrations themselves, as well as encouraging its private use.

The GISA was created by Agreement of the Council of Ministers of 19 March of 2010, with the mandate to study, debate and propose measures to solve the problems of the agri-food sector, in those matters in which the powers of the ministries that are part of the Group coincide, as financing, taxation, control and monitoring of imports, electricity supply in the irrigation sector and renewable energy policy.

In the near future, the GISA technical work that is still pending will continue., such as import control and improving the functioning of the food chain, in preparation for the final report of the Group, which should be submitted to the Government next autumn.