CRISIS MEETING TO BE HELD WITH FARMERS

PALMA
THE Balearic Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries, Merce Amer, yesterday announced that she and her department have called a series of meetings with the region's agricultural organisations to discuss compensation for the wide spread damage caused to winter crops by last year's torrential rains.

As we reported this week, in some parts of Majorca, in particular Sa Pobla and Sineu, nearly 45 percent of the winter crops have been wiped out and acres of fields are still lying under feet of water. Amer explained that not only does the government want to agree on new lines of compensation, but also devise a series of incentives to attract more young people into the agricultural sector to safe guard the industry's future.

Last year, a total of 57 young people joined the agricultural sector but, Amer said that in the wake of the damage caused by the past three months of rain, the most pressing issues are to assess the full extent of the damage caused and compensate the victims as quickly as possible.