Pedro Sánchez announces a package of measures to boost generational change in agriculture

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has also announced that the Executive is going to mobilise agricultural land owned by the state to make it available to young people, and will propose that the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) allocate 10% of its resources to generational change in the agricultural sector.

iHub La Vega Innova, San Fernando de Henares (Madrid)

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, attends the dialogue organized with young people who are dedicated to agricultural activit (Pool Moncloa/Borja Puig de la Bellacasa)

The chief executive has also announced a package of measures to advance the generational change in the agricultural sector, with "new opportunities" and "all possible facilities" aimed especially at young people. He made this announcement during his speech at the presentation of the measures to facilitate young people's access to agricultural activity, held at the iHub La Vega Innova in San Fernando de Henares (Madrid), which was also attended by the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas.

Pedro Sánchez, who has been meeting with young farmers and stockbreeders to find out their concerns, told them that the Government "will always be at their side because they are the future of our countryside". He went on to cite climate change, the need to produce in a "sustainable, efficient and profitable" way, the enhancement of national gastronomy and the promotion of healthier food as challenges for the sector, referring to the generational changeover as an "urgent and necessary" challenge that "must be placed as one of the top priorities".

He specifically pointed out that 40% of farm owners are over 65 years of age and only 9% are under 41 years of age, a "phenomenon common to many other neighbouring countries", hence the motivation for the Strategy for Generational Change in Agriculture promoted by the Commission to double the proportion of young farmers in the EU by 2040. "When young people join this sector, there are more productive farms, more added value, more employment, more innovation and more sustainability", said the President of the Government, stressing that "bringing young people into this sector pays off for us as a country".

Young Earth: Platform for Agricultural Land Information and Mobilisation

He went on to announce a series of measures to tackle the "great obstacle" to the effective incorporation of young people into the agricultural sector: access to land. The first measure to facilitate access to land is the launch of Tierra Joven, a Platform for Information and Mobilisation of Agricultural Land, which will be led by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in collaboration with the sector, the autonomous communities and other ministries involved.

This platform will enable supply and demand to be disseminated, providing homogeneous and unified information on the agricultural land market in Spain. The new platform will be aimed at facilitating access to land, especially for young people, women and new agricultural professionals, and at improving transparency and the functioning of the market, with up-to-date information on financing, regulations applicable to the transfer of farms and taxation.

The Government will launch the platform in the first months of the year with the approval of a royal decree that regulates its content, consolidating it in the future Family Farming Law with the creation of an Information and Transfer Office for agricultural land, similar to the existing entities in neighbouring countries such as France, Germany, Italy, Belgium and Poland.

Mobilisation of state-owned agricultural land

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, attends the presentation of measures to boost agricultural activity| Pool Moncloa/Borja Puig de la Bellacasa

The Government will also mobilise state-owned agricultural land to make it available to our young people through the new platform. "There are some 17,000 rural properties owned by the General State Administration we want to analyse to assess their suitability for agricultural activity, and where appropriate make them available to young people, women and new professionals," said Pedro Sánchez. The aim is to help them access agricultural land and turn it into projects that generate employment. The president announced that to this end a process of dialogue will be opened with the autonomous communities, with the sector and with all the stakeholders to agree on a model that facilitates access to these properties.

Earmarking 10% of the CAP for generational replacement

Last, Pedro Sánchez specified that the Government is going to propose that the new CAP earmark 10% of its resources to generational replacement, as opposed to the 6% proposed by the Commission. "Spain is arguing for the EU budget to be 2% of gross national disposable income. We are very much alone in this because there are many governments which, under the false argument of the renationalisation of competences and a false recovery of sovereignty, are weakening the Community budget. We must opt for a pro-European discourse; EU budgets must be bigger because the challenges are ever greater and more pressing", he said.

"The CAP has been, is and must remain one of the best legacies of the European project, and is above all an investment in security and sovereignty. Those who defend the renationalisation of community policies should know that the CAP is the first common European policy, and pro-European governments such as Spain's will never allow one of the common policies such as this one to be weakened in a budget that must necessarily be larger and which must represent 2%", he stressed.

Planas: "The generational handover is the challenge of challenges"

The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, stressed that the generational change is "the challenge of challenges" for the Spanish and European agri-food sector. He explained that the Government is working to give "present and future" to the countryside with programmes such as "Cultiva", with an increase of up to €200 million in the current CAP to promote the incorporation of young people, the development of agricultural innovation and training, and the €2.5-billion boost to modernise irrigation systems.

The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, during his speech at the event| Pool Moncloa/Borja Puig de la Bellacasa

He also said that the law on family and professional agriculture will encourage generational change and the incorporation of women. In this regard, he stressed that the incorporation of young people and women is key to guaranteeing the future of the sector. Planas underlined the Government's commitment to profitable, sustainable and competitive agricultural activity. As a government, "we listen, dialogue, examine and seek solutions with the sector and with the autonomous communities", because "we want young farmers and stockbreeders to have sustainable and profitable farms and to be able to earn a decent living", he assured.

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• Agriculture
• Economy
• Sustainability
• Government of Spain