The national president of Asaja, Pedro Barato, criticized this Friday the new Common Agricultural Policy (PAC) for "penalizing" the professional farmer, and said that "no rules can be set" to reward those who "do not want to work" and yet "then penalize those who want to work." Before closing the general assembly of Asaja Toledo, at the Beatriz hotel in the regional capital, Barato explained that, as he learned from his father, there is only one definition of a farmer and it is the one that says that a farmer is someone who «does not he has another payroll» than what he sells in the field.

However, the national president of Asaja has shown his respect towards the other agriculture, which "also has to live and also has to exist."

"If we have to discriminate, let's make positive discrimination towards the farmer and the rancher who lives from this, and that does not mean going against others," he clarified.

On the other hand, he has denounced that with the increases in the cost of production, fertilizer, diesel, electricity, labor, which, according to his estimates, has risen 38.8% in the last two years, «a unfeasible many farms in the agricultural sector of our land. «In the countryside there is work, what is needed is to establish rules where those who do not want to work do not prevail over those who want to work. Everyone has the right to live, to feed, to have a house, but rules cannot be established so that those who do not want to work are rewarded and then those who want to work are penalized. This is not done with more subsidies, this is done with more solutions, but benefiting the Spanish agricultural sector", he concluded.

Barato has also spoken about water, for whom "everything that is being done in terms of water for the region is good", but "the question is whether it is good for the farmers of this region". «I am in luck for Toledo, for Talavera (...), but the decisions that have to be adopted are decisions so that the agricultural sector has a future», he stated. He has also praised the regional government for ensuring that the well files of priority exploitations are going to be resolved. "Hopefully as soon as possible."

First thing in the morning, the Agrarian Association of Young Farmers (Asaja) of Toledo had opened its General Assembly calling for a CAP that "allows farmers to adapt to new situations" and calling for a water policy that allows the Toledo agricultural sector to "prosper" . The president of Asaja Toledo, Blanca Corroto, —who spoke at the opening ceremony together with the mayor of Toledo, Milagros Tolón; the territorial director of Unicaja Banco, José Ignacio Martínez; and the head of Consultancy and Cooperatives at Globalcaja in Toledo, José Manuel Bravo, began his speech by observing a minute of silence with all the attendees in memory of the members who died during the pandemic.

In his opinion, the CAP entails increasingly «greater limitations, which are not accompanied by greater economic support. The items decrease year after year », he lamented, and has insisted on calling for a CAP that allows farmers and ranchers to adapt « to technologies and research » and that provides them « tools to be competitive » in the markets.

In addition, he has focused on water, "vital for our agriculture in a dry area", thanking Milagros Tolón for being "the only one" that "shows its face and says no to the transfer". "Here you have this organization to join efforts and say that the Tagus is not touched," he added. At this point, he demanded that the ecological flow of the Tagus be respected so that those who live in the province can "prosper" or, at least, not go bankrupt "by not irrigating so that others can." "The Tagus unites us, generous to generate wealth in the Spanish Levant while those who live on the lands it irrigates are denied water," he said, adding that the national hydrological policy, "with a river transferring water that it does not spare him", it is not the most adequate "to structure a country in equality and social justice". He gave the Real Acequia del Jarama as an example, which needs investments to optimize its resources, since with this "even more hectares of irrigated land could be put in place," reports Ep.

Finally, regarding the organization itself and its operation during the last year, Blanca Corroto has highlighted that the volume of Asaja Toledo "is increasing every day", assuring that they could not be more satisfied with the work they do for farmers and Toledo ranchers.

In addition to the support of the Toledo City Council, the banking entities present at the event expressed their support for the sector, such as the territorial director of Unicaja Banco, José Ignacio Martínez, who said that in his entity they work "side by side" with agricultural organizations and He recalled that in 2020 they determined that their collaboration with Asaja Toledo had to "be much more than going to specific events."

Finally, the head of Consulting and Cooperatives of Globalcaja in Toledo, José Manuel Bravo, pointed out that this entity is "next to" Asaja's partners and will continue to be, with a "very broad" agreement that covers "all needs" of the sector.