Portugal: CAP accuses Ministry of Agriculture of incompetence
The Confederation of Farmers of Portugal (CAP) said this Monday (3rd) that Minister Maria do Céu Antunes has “a wrong view of what agriculture is on the ground”, considering that “incompetence is undermining the ministry”.
Portugal Digital with Lusa
“It is [a ministra] with a wrong view of what agriculture on the ground is. It does not recognize this and considers that there is no reason for these protests. If it didn’t exist, it didn’t have the success it had in Mirandela and will have here and in Portalegre. We need recognition from those who govern us. The agricultural sector is secondary and we do not accept that at all”, said Eduardo Oliveira e Sousa to the Lusa agency.
Farmers took to the streets today, in Castelo Branco, in a protest action against the dismantling of the Ministry of Agriculture and against what they call the government’s bewilderment in the agricultural and forestry sector.
The demonstration demonstrated by CAP to bring together about fifty organizations from all over the Center region in protest against the extinction of the Regional Directorates of Agriculture (DRA) and their integration in the Coordination and Regional Development Commissions (CCDR).
The president of CAP considers that the CCDRs are bodies in the administrative area and that the Ministry of Agriculture is full of technical problems, “of a very high complexity associated with the Common Agricultural Policy (PAC)”.
“The regional directors are regional. That’s why they are the mirror of decentralization and the CCDR will force a concentration. We don’t understand that. We have nothing against the CCDR or against Dr. Maria do Céu Antunes. We do have against the incompetence that is undermining the Ministry [Agricultura]”.
Eduardo Oliveira e Sousa stressed that there is currently a gap in the Ministry of Agriculture and argued that this body “must have a Secretary of State for Agriculture who is an entity or a person who understands the issues, in technical terms, to be able to implement the policy measures”.
“What happens is that the policy measures have a source that is wrong and that source is the Minister of Agriculture. We need a Secretary of State that puts the correct measures on the ground, but the measures need to be changed, because as they are approved at the moment, they are not correct”, she stressed.
The president of CAP also stated that “perhaps because of this it is difficult to find someone who wants to take over the portfolio of the Secretary of State [Agricultura]”.
He added that aid for the drought “did not reach the territory” and also said that the Recovery and Resilience Program (PRR) is “an opportunity lost so far” for agriculture.
“The only amount allocated to the PRR so far is related to the Pisão dam, in the Portalegre region, and the financing of a project by the Ministry of Agriculture to recover the ministry’s own buildings and then use them in the service of agricultural research. It’s starting to build a house from the roof,” he said.
Regarding the CAP Strategic Plan (PEPAC), he underlined that most of the measures adopted “were not specifically contemplated by the Minister of Agriculture who considers the PEPAC for the nation. It is not the PEPAC of Portugal, but it is authored by the minister and will have to be changed ”, she concluded.