The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development has invested more than 41 million euros to finance the execution of works to improve public rural roads spread across all the provinces of Andalusia. In total, 139 municipalities have benefited from these funds, which amount to 100% of the investment needed to optimize almost 600 kilometers of rural roads.
By province, in Almería, nearly 3.4 million euros have been paid for the improvement of 46 kilometres of rural roads in 15 municipalities; in Cádiz, more than three million euros for 33 kilometres of roads in 11 towns; and in Córdoba, payments have exceeded five million euros to improve nearly 72 kilometres of roads that run through 15 municipal areas.
In the case of Granada, in 2024, nearly six million euros have been paid for 100 kilometres of roads in 24 towns; in Huelva, public investment has amounted to more than two million euros to improve 35 kilometres of rural roads in 8 municipalities; and in Jaén, more than 10 million euros to optimise 153 kilometres of rural roads in 31 municipalities.
Payments in the province of Malaga amounted to 6.7 million euros to improve 88 kilometres of roads in 19 towns; and finally, in Seville, 4.8 million euros were paid to improve 71 kilometres of rural roads that run through 16 municipal areas.
The major commitment of the Department of Agriculture to improve these roads is due to the importance of these infrastructures for rural areas, where they play an important role in communication between populations and for access to the agricultural holdings where many families live. The good condition of these roads affects the operation of some 230,000 agricultural and livestock farms and has an indirect impact on their productivity and profitability as they are the access route for both workers and the supplies and machinery necessary for the development of the daily tasks of agricultural companies. Therefore, the improvement of rural roads contributes to boosting the economy of these areas and to fixing the population to the territory.
These works to improve rural roads in Andalusia are included in the Itínere Plan of the Andalusian Government, which has two phases of execution and is complemented by the Itínere Rural Plan. In total, these multi-year plans include works aimed at optimising more than 2,100 kilometres of rural roads in 652 municipalities in Andalusia.