29 million euros for new aid for young and new farmers

Toni Pérez, President of the Alicante Provincial Council, joined Miguel Barrachina, Regional Minister of Agriculture, Water, Livestock, and Fisheries, this morning to unveil the Generalitat’s new aid program for young and new farmers. Representatives from the province’s agricultural associations and entities attended the event, which took place in the Exhibition Hall of the Provincial Palace. This direct grant, totalling 29 million euros for the Valencian Community, aims to encourage modernisation, sustainability, and generational change in the agriculture sector while ensuring its viability.

Toni Pérez called these funds “historic,” “coming at a very opportune time.” “This €29 million investment marks a historic milestone for the agricultural and livestock sector in the Valencian Community,” said the President of the Provincial Council, thanking and congratulating the Consell “for doing what it should be doing for the primary sector, all with great effort.”

In this regard, he emphasised that “aid is in high demand by the agricultural and livestock sector, and you have promptly addressed it from the Ministry of Agriculture.”

The incentives, as revealed by the regional minister at the ceremony, include up to €80,000 for young persons aged 18 to 40 who are beginning in agriculture and up to €70,000 for those aged 41 to 56 who are new farmers and ranchers. Furthermore, young individuals who start their activity in any of the 46 Alicante municipalities in the Leader zone—mountains and locations with natural limitations—will receive an additional €10,000 incentive.

Miguel Barrachina has highlighted the fact that “agriculture and livestock farming are our food, our best environmental commitment, and one of our economic drivers, and this Consell is committed to their renewal.” In reaction, he criticised the central government’s water policies, particularly those involving the Tajo-Segura transfer. “It’s hard to understand that there are those who want to condemn us to becoming the desert of Europe and destroy our agriculture,” the Valencian leader said, urging Pedro Sánchez’s government to “stop this belligerent attitude towards our farmers.”