This Wednesday, the Jorge Azcón Executive gave the green light to Decree law to process direct aid to the countryside due to the drought, estimated at 7 million eurosand which will be published in the Official Gazette of Aragon (BOA) next Thursday. “A million more than what was planned,” explained the new Minister of Agriculture and Livestock, Javier Rincón, who took over from the Independent Party Angel Samper, chosen by Vox to carry the portfolio.
Samper stepped up this arduous task of drought aid in Aragon last May, holding meetings with OPS and agricultural cooperatives, among others, to discuss the criteria for distributing aid for the 2024 drought, taking into account as a priority farmers and ranchers located in areas of extreme drought, which will affect around 180,000 hectares.
Thus, this agreement establishes, among other things, two distribution zones and economic amounts determined according to a series of parameters. Likewise, it distinguishes breeders and farmersa person who can benefit from both settings.
November: payments
Rincon explained that the money comes from provident fund from the Treasury Department, for climate aversions. These aids are scheduled to be paid throughout the month of Novembersince they are envisaged in the Temporary National Framework on aid measures to support the economy following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, approved by the European Commission in its Decision SA.102771 (2022/N), of 2 April, and extended until 31 December 2024, they must therefore be managed and paid before that date.
Moreover, no one will have to request it, since it is established that any person CAP beneficiaries are beneficiaries of these payments or of the Beekeeping Sector Intervention, the latter in the case of the beekeepers concerned to which the actual amount fixed on the basis of the UGM is applied. However, beneficiaries may waive the aid if they wish.
Drought aid in Aragon
Of the total amount, 1.2 million euros will be allocated to the livestock sector and 5.8 million remaining for the agricultural sector in the affected areas. Although in the case of affected livestock farmers and provided for in the decree-law, the amount is set at 25 euros for each large livestock unit (UGM), a unit of measurement for counting livestock heads, in the case of farmers the amount will depend on other factors.
Thus, for the distribution of direct aid to the agricultural sector, two zones have been determined: one maximum affected area And a serious area of affectionIn this sense, this aid should reach 304 municipalities and 19 regionsin one zone or another, all the agricultural holdings of twelve of them being beneficiaries: Ribera Baja del Ebro, Campo de Cariñena, Campo de Belchite, Bajo Martín, Jiloca, Cuencas Mineras, Andorra-Sierra de Arcos, Bajo Aragón, Community of Teruel, Maestrazgo, Gúdar-Javalambre and Matarraña.
On the other hand, the number of hectares concerned will be taken into account (with a maximum of one hundred hectares) as well as the fact that the farmers or agricultural companies are young or not, considering as such those less than 10 years old. 41 years old or that they will not reach that age in 2024.
It has been established that in the case of farmers the minimum payment will be 200 euros. In the case of breeders, the maximum aid can reach 2,500 euros and in the case of agriculture, the maximum amount could reach 5,000 eurosThis is the case of a young farmer whose farm was located in the maximum affected area.
In the case where the beneficiary is both a farmer and a livestock breeder and meets the conditions for the distribution of aid in both sectors, he can receive both aids, such that a young farmer and livestock breeder whose agricultural holding was located in a maximum impact zone could benefit from aid up to 7,500 euros.
Affected areas
To distribute the direct aid, from the Department of Agriculture, Livestock and Food of the Government of Aragon, various factors were taken into account and it was established as beneficiaries of these to agricultural holdings and not to the territoriesalthough these served as the basis for determining the amounts corresponding to their status.
Thus, the data provided by Agroinsuranceavailable once the campaign ends, next September, those obtained thanks to the Standardized precipitation index (SPI, for its acronym in English), and the Standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI, for its acronym in English) with which the degree of affection in each area was determined.
agricultural insurance
In addition, the agricultural insurance budget has increased by 3 million euroswhich means 33% moreand “they will try to get more insurance and thus more money will be recovered,” said Rincón, who has set the goal of his ministry to ensure that rural populations are insured, because “the capacity of the government of Aragon is limited and when these circumstances occur, private insurance pays more. “We will try to agricultural insurance “to be attractive,” he added.
