The Minister of Agriculture assured this Wednesday that the Government “is doing everything possible” to support the sector, through extraordinary support, highlighting that there is an amount of 100 million euros that is committed to farmers.
The Ministry of Agriculture has already made available and announced a set of supports that allows farmers to have predictability, including being able to carry out interventions with the bank […]. There are more than 100 million euros, at this moment, that are committed to reach farmers”, said Maria do Céu Antunes.
The official was speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a visit to a citrus production unit in Morgado da Torre, in Portimão, which is being supplied with water from two recently rehabilitated wells.
With the “seriousness of the situation we are experiencing, whether through drought, war or even pandemicand the effects of the pandemic, of course, we also have to extraordinarily support farmers and that is what we are doing, we fight it inside, we fight it outside”, he stressed.
Urged by journalists to respond to the criticisms made about the tutelage of the general secretary of the Confederação dos Agricultores de Portugal (CAP), who said that the Government’s response to mitigate the impact of the drought in the animal production and feeding sector was “non-existent”, returned the ruler to the question.
“It is better to ask why during the electoral campaign the PAC itself advised voters not to vote for the Socialist Party,” he replied.
The citrus production unit visited by the minister is being supplied by water from two wells reactivated between May and Junewhen the irrigation campaign should have started, which this year has not been able to start due to the restriction, in February, of the use of water in the Bravura dam, in Lagos, for irrigation.
“It was never like this. It is a worrying situation and, if we don’t find that alternative, the orchard would die,” said Manuel Reis, from Frutas do Sotavento Algarvio (Frusoal), the producer organization to which this production unit of Morgado da Torre, in Portimão, belongs.
However, the use of water from the two wells, which is injected into the ditch there, meant that increase the cost of energy by 10 timeswhich became 30 cents per cubic meter of water, when before it was 3 cents.
In total, adding the two holes, 45 liters of water per second are injected into this irrigation channel, feeding nearly a third of Alvor’s irrigation perimeter, which encompasses the municipalities of Lagos and Portimão, but also the golf courses of Penina, which are located in that area.
According to the minister, agriculture, “since it is not the main activity in the Algarve, is very important”, since many areas of the region “do not have tourism, but have an agricultural use that is essential to guarantee” self-sufficiency and exports. . .
Recalling that it has not rained in the region “for many months”, Maria do Céu Antunes said that there is an “unfortunate expectation that when it rains it will be torrential” and, if there is no capacity to retain the water, cannot be used when needed.
The water tables must be conserved, they can only be used as a last resort, the dams must be treated, worked on, possibly even raised, in fact, the intervention we are doing in the [barragem da] Courage is very important so that all the available volume can be captured, but also so that it can be used to the maximum”, he concluded.
Source: Observadora
