Submitted by laborate on Thu, 15/09/2011 - 13:41 GMT.
José Manuel Silva Rodríguez,
Director of Agriculture of the European Union has granted
an interview to magazine Mercados
of the newspaper La Voz de Galicia.
Silva Rodríguez talked, among others, about the impact of
planning and the forthcoming reform of the Common Agricultural
Policy (CAP), focusing on the Galician rural communities.
We summarize below some of the statements contained this
interview, which was published on September 4th, 2011.
About the CAP: "There will be substantial changes, which
do not just mean the end of milk quotas, the issue that
likely raises most of the interest in Galicia. [...] The
fundamental shift or change, no doubt, will be placing sustainability,
with all that that entails, at the heart of CAP. And that
implies that there will be to tackle issues in a practical
way that in Galicia, and also other regions, have been put
aside in too many occasions, such as land use, that is,
favoring the most rational and cost-effective natural resources
usage."
An example of the negative consequences of the lack of planning:
"Take the case of farmers. Galician farmers have recently
been paid a few cents per kilo of milk less than their competitors
from other European regions. [...] when the price of fodder
was relatively low, feeding cows was possible almost without
resorting to pasture, and many farmers increased their herds
without increasing the area of available grass. Today,
with rising fodder prices [...] farmers who own pastures
have been able to better cope with the cyclical and inevitable
variations in prices. Abandoned pastures does not totally
explain the economic situation of many Galician farmers,
yet clearly illustrates and allows understanding the usefulness
of proper spatial planning. "
About possible solutions to the lack of spatial planning:
"In the case of Galicia, to address the shortage of pastures
or to face a more rational exploitation of its vast forest
wealth, legal reforms should be undertaken and, apart from
issues relating to property, leasing rules to facilitate
the use of many abandoned lands - many of them pasture -
could be enabled, as well as land exchange, or getting actual
progress in the land consolidation processes, which seem
endless, among other things and formulas."