The Regional Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, Carmen Crespo, has made an institutional visit to Vélez-Rubio, together with the mayor of this municipality, Miguel Martínez-Carlón, touring the Town Hall and the Church of Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación.
The councillor of Vélez-Rubio has been interested in the measures contemplated in the III Decree of Drought, which has just been published in the Official Gazette of the Junta de Andalucía (BOJA) and which can benefit the farmers and stockbreeders of his municipality. The Minister has detailed the actions foreseen in the text and has stressed the importance of continuing to act to alleviate the effects of the structural drought suffered by the Andalusian Autonomous Community, but also the high production costs, the consequences of the war in Ukraine and the new framework of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
Crespo has highlighted the importance of Vélez-Rubio and the three other municipalities that form part of the Los Vélez region of Almeria in nuts, mainly almonds, with around 80% of the provincial production of this nut and with 80% of its surface area under organic cultivation. In the specific case of Vélez-Rubio, the municipality has around 10,000 hectares of almond trees. Another important crop in the area is barley, with around 400 hectares under cultivation.
Carmen Crespo stressed the need for collaboration between all the administrations in order to «keep our rural areas alive and with economic possibilities». The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development recalled that «66% of the population of Andalusia lives in rural areas», which is why she stressed that «it is crucial that they continue to show economic dynamism to avoid depopulation, which is a real problem in other Spanish autonomous communities».
The institutional visit to Vélez-Rubio, in addition to the Mayor of the town and the Regional Minister Carmen Crespo, was attended by the Government Delegate of the Andalusian Regional Government in Almería, Aránzazu Martín; the Secretary General of Agricultural Funds and Rural Development of the Regional Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development (CAPADR), Manuel Alías; the CAPADR’s Director General for Direct Aid, Raquel Espín; as well as the Secretary General of the Andalusian Agricultural and Fisheries Management Agency (Agapa), Daniel Quesada; and the Territorial Delegate for Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, Antonio Mena.