Minister claims government is helping farmers

ON the eve of major regional and national demonstrations by farmers claiming that the agricultural sector is facing ruin, Balearic Minister Merce Amer said yesterday that the government is working with farming associations to find a solution to the crisis.

Aware that members of farming unions in the Balearics will be protesting tomorrow in Madrid, Amer said that she perfectly understood their predicament and that a farmers' cooperative plan is now on the cards to be developed over a five year period from 2010 to 2014. She said that government policy, which will include a cash injection of 400'000 euros will be to modernise farming practices and to ensure that they remain a stable contributor not just to those working in the agricultural sector but also to the Balearic economy as a whole. Amer said that a mainstay of the move to improve the lot of farmers will be to have the food which they produce guaranteeing true quality, something which attract custom. Farmers unions across the country are claiming that government needs to act immediatley to help the industry. “Over the past five years,” said the President of the Balearic branch of Farmers' Union, Asaja, 124'000 agricultural jobs have been lost nationwide.