Modernising the agricultural environment

The project

Farmers under the age of 35 who own an agricultural holding in the Balearic Islands account for 3.2% of the total, 4.3 percentage points lower than the national average (National Institute of Statistics, 2016). This clearly signals an ageing sector, whereby generational change-over is hampered by how unattractive and unprofitable agricultural holdings are.

This lack of a generational change-over means that the number and surface area of agricultural holdings is on a downward trend, and that those who remain are less open to accepting criteria of innovation into how they operate.

This means that alongside the gradual reduction in agricultural activity, large areas of the rural environment are suffering from degradation through abandonment.

To go about altering this trend, the “Modernising the agricultural environment” project consists of funding economic aid to encourage young farmers to become established by supporting their access to owning or co-owning agricultural holdings, either individually or as an association (in the case of Menorca this includes incorporation as a farmer in a Rural Menorcan Company (Sociedad Rural Menorquina or SRM). This will involve farms undergoing structural improvements and modernisation as they are taken over and in the future.

This measure is fundamental to ensure that support is there to help young farmers in their work, and will consist of non-returnable aid as a lump sum to help young farmers overcome the difficulties that are involved in taking on a new activity, in terms of the training required, meeting the various costs involved, and the delay in income that are all inherent parts of the various economic activities that form part of the agricultural environment. 

In this context and in accordance with measure 6.1. Creating young famers’ businesses of the Development Plan for Rural Areas 2014-2020, the beneficiaries of the aid must produce a proper Business Plan with the objective of generating a minimum amount of revenue from the agricultural activity and the preservation and modernisation of the agricultural holding that the young farmer is joining.