More than 139,000 rainfed, rice and tomato farmers receive extra help of almost 269 million due to the drought

MADRID, 6 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has published the provisional list of 139,756 owners of agricultural holdings producing dry land, rice and industrial tomatoes, who may receive extraordinary aid of 268.7 million euros to compensate for the difficulties. due to the drought and the consequences of the war in Ukraine.

Specifically, this aid, established by Royal Decree-Law 4/2023, of May 11, benefits natural or legal persons or entities without legal personality, owners of agricultural holdings that are eligible for the receipt of direct aid. of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in the 2023 campaign and that have dry crop land on their farm, excluding temporary pastures, with irrigated crop land in areas of traditional rice cultivation and have a specific area for the aid associated with the cultivation of industrial tomatoes in recent campaigns.

According to Agriculture, the number of eligible hectares for receiving this aid has been determined ex officio by the Spanish Agrarian Guarantee Fund (FEGA) in accordance with the criteria established in Order APA/871/2023, of July 20, which develops the royal decree law mentioned.

In this way, the eligible area of ​​dry farmland corresponds to the hectares of land, excluding temporary pastures, determined for the receipt of direct aid corresponding to the single application for the CAP 2023.

In the case of the Canary Islands, the number of hectares that appear in the Registry of Agricultural Holdings (Regepa) as of June 30, 2023 has been taken as a reference. For these dry farmland, a maximum of 300 has been established. eligible hectares per beneficiary.

The eligible areas for rice and industrial tomatoes correspond to those in which these crops have not been planted in 2023.

In this way, the definitive unit amounts established by the FEGA, based on the provisional list of benefits and surfaces published in the provisional resolution, are 39.8 euros per eligible hectare for farms that have the majority of their surface rainfed cropland, excluding temporary pastures, declared in the 2023 campaign in the provinces classified as areas highly affected by drought.

The amount of 19.9 euros per eligible hectare, for farms that have most of their surface area of ​​dry crop land, excluding temporary pastures, declared in the 2023 campaign in the provinces classified as an area of ​​medium impact by drought, while for rice producers, a unit amount of 186.1 euros per eligible hectare is established and 407.6 euros per eligible hectare for industrial tomato producers.

Agriculture has specified that aid is not granted to beneficiaries whose total amount to be received is less than 200 euros.

The areas of high impact for dry farmland established in Order APA/871/2023 are the autonomous communities of Andalusia, Aragon, Castilla-La Mancha, Catalonia, Madrid, Valencian Community, Extremadura, La Rioja, Murcia and Navarra , and the provinces of Álava, Ávila, Salamanca and Segovia, as well as the enclave of Treviño (Burgos).

While those with medium impact are the autonomous communities of the Balearic and Canary Islands, and the provinces of Burgos (except the Enclave of Treviño), León, Palencia, Soria, Valladolid and Zamora. The aid is assigned to the region in which the single application for the CAP 2023 is managed, which is why some communities appear in the table that are not among the areas affected by drought such as Cantabria.