Castilla y León asks that in order to be an active farmer, affiliation to Social Security is required

The defense of the professional farmer, the suppression of degressiveness or redistributive payment in the eco-schemes, as well as the request for a comprehensive National Plan for the sheep and goat sector, make up the allegations that the Junta de Castilla y León will present to the National Strategic Plan of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

The draft has been exposed since last November 30 to public information and the deadline for allegations is February 4 of next year.

This was explained by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development, Jesús Julio Carnero, after participating via telematics in the meeting of the Sectorial Conference on Agriculture and Rural Development chaired by the minister, Luis Planas.

The Board’s claim is that the figure of the ‘active farmer’ is largely reflected in the professional model since it is a guarantee for the continuity of the agricultural sector.

Carnero has defended that in all the modalities that define the active farmer “Affiliation to Social Security should be required for agricultural activity”. This approach will also be incorporated into the allegations that Castilla y León will present in the public information process. “We want a good CAP but not at the expense of others”

However, there is a “very generalized” criterion in the rest of the autonomous communities that defend a model “more open and linked” to part-time agriculture due to its productive structure. Jesús Julio Carnero has indicated that Castilla y León “has a professional model” and the new CAP “must have positive discrimination against professionals.”

Redistributive payment

In this sense, the counselor has referred to the application of the redistributive payment and the elimination of degressivity in associated aid and in the eco-schemes, in line with which he has defended that it “Small and medium-sized farms of professional farmers should prevail.”

The initial proposal of the Ministry to detract from all the recipients of the basic payment the sixth part of it to redistribute it uniformly in the first hectares of all the farms was “clearly detrimental” for the professional agriculture of Castilla y León, more identified with farms extensive and more dimensioned than in the rest of Spain.

However, given the refusal of the European Commission to use this approach, the Community has proposed an alternative model that it compensates to a greater extent some sections of surface “more identified with the farms of professional farmers”, since the reduction of the associated aid and of the eco-schemes due to the size of the farms “would harm the agriculture of Castilla y León” .

Castile and Leon It is the region that absorbs the most funding in the current CAP in associated aid, about 140 million euros a year, practically a quarter of all this aid in Spain, as recalled by Jesús Julio Carnero.

In this regard, he stressed that the initial proposal to apply degressivity to these grants, in the sense of reducing them from a specific area or head of cattle “is not shared by Castilla y León”.

In any case, Carnero has warned that today the farmer who has an operation of more than 130 hectares will receive as a basic payment plus redistributive payments, his income would increase compared to the current CAP.

Plan for sheep and goats

On the other hand, the counselor has reiterated the need to incorporate a National Sectoral Plan for goat sheep, in line with which he has been optimistic, because although the initial version of the Strategic Plan “does not contemplate it”, the Government has opened to the possibility of studying it in 2023 and reconsidering this position.

Ram recalled that currently in Castilla y León there are about 5,500 sheep and goat farmers, approximately 20 percent of the national total, and has warned of the “special need” for this plan given the situation in the sector.