The Parc Agrobiotech de Lleida hosted this week a special day of Meetings in La Vanguardia organized in collaboration with AgroBank and under the title "How the Catalan agricultural sector faces the challenges of the future". The event was broadcast live via streaming and is available at lavanguardia.com. Throughout the session, three round tables were held, each dedicated to a relevant aspect for the future of agricultural activity: the energy transition, the role of technological innovation and efficient water management.
Before the first forum began, a brief inaugural act took place, which placed the audience at the moment the agri-food sector is experiencing and its projection for the future. In his speech welcoming the attendees, Josep Maria González, territorial director of CaixaBank in Catalonia, highlighted that having "a strong, cutting-edge and powerful agri-food sector benefits the whole of society". In his opinion, this strength "must provide stability in food sovereignty, but also demographic, social, economic and environmental sustainability."
González explained that last year, through AgroBank, "we have financed close to 5,000 million in Catalonia for both the recurring activity of the businesses and to promote different energy efficiency projects, efficiency in the use of water, expansion of new irrigation systems, modernization of industries and farms or also circular economy projects, among others”. The territorial manager of CaixaBank put the value that "one in two farmers and ranchers in this country is an AgroBank customer".
For his part, Carmel Mòdol, Secretary of Food of the Department of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda of the Generalitat de Catalunya, commented that "in the world in which we live, we have the feeling that food has always been an issue resolved". However, it can happen that "in one part of the world there is a certain geopolitical problem and that this causes the food that is on those shelves in the markets either not to arrive or to reach a much higher price," he assured.
This dependency makes it especially necessary "to have an agrarian, agricultural and livestock population, located on the territory fully developing its activity for the benefit of the citizenry as a whole". In this sense, Mòdol explained that "we have a family-based operating model and to keep it alive and operational we are convinced that it must receive direct public support."
To guarantee the future of Catalan farms, the Food Secretary called for "water supplies at reasonable costs, not losing our best land for the benefit of other activities, energy at a reasonable price to maintain activity and above all, incorporate innovation to reduce those negative aspects, which also exist, on the management of the territory that food production may have”.
The first of the round tables focused on the energy challenge and included the participation of Carles Gibert, vice-president of the Board of Economic Promotion of the Diputación de Lleida; Gabriel Nebreda, director of EDP Solar; Jaume Pedrós, responsible for alternative energies of Unió de Pagesos; and Silvia Sanjoaquín, director of Nuevos Negocios de Naturgy.
There was agreement on the need to bet on renewable energy and the need to promote self-consumption. However, a greater dialogue with the territory was also called for when deciding on the installation of large solar installations and avoiding the use of good farmland for this purpose.
The role of innovation and technology was the focus of the second table, which included the participation of Laura Jiménez Carro, Service Line Leader Innovation Executive Partner of IBM Consulting; Francesc Reguant, president of the Agri-Food Economy Commission of the College of Economists of Catalonia; Carlos Seara, network director of AgroBank; and Ricard Gòdia, cattle breeder and president of Asoprovac.
The interventions of the speakers revealed that technological solutions for the sector exist and that progress is continuous. The conviction on the part of farmers and ranchers of the need to bet on innovation is also quite general, although in small farms it poses more difficulties. A side effect of this process is the attraction of new professional profiles and the ability to keep the youngest in the territory.
The management of an increasingly scarce and at the same time essential resource such as water was the topic addressed by the participants in the third of the tables. The speakers were Josep Maria Jové, president of the Segarra-Garrigues Canal Irrigation Community; Joaquim Pago, leader of the General Community of Irrigators of the Xerta-Sènia Canal - an infrastructure that is in the bidding phase -; Amadeu Ros, president of the General Comunidad de Regents dels Canals d'Urgell, and Montserrat Termes, professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Barcelona and researcher at the Centro Tecnológico del Agua (Cetaqua).
The representatives of the irrigation communities expressed their commitment to the implementation of technology that allows better management of an increasingly scarce resource, although they expressed that these initiatives have an economic cost that the irrigators cannot sustain. In the same way, they referred to the fact that a large part of the costs associated with water come from energy consumption. Another key element is the elimination of inefficient irrigation systems and the promotion of drip as an effective and sustainable alternative.
Sergio Gutiérrez, director of AgroBank, was in charge of putting the final point to this day. At the beginning of his speech, the director summarized the relevance of these factors discussed in the round tables, ensuring that "we must be efficient in the use of water, self-sufficient in the generation of energy and innovation is essential to be able to have data and make optimal decisions.
The director of AgroBank said that in the last two or three years, and especially during the pandemic, society "has been able to realize how fundamental, vital and essential the agri-food sector is for all of us."
Regarding future forecasts, Gutiérrez assured that the increase in the world population will force "increasing the current demand for food by 70%." The question is, for the sector, to see "how we are capable of producing more with less, how we are capable of improving productivity and increasing the efficiency of production with fewer natural resources".
Regarding the financing needs, Gutiérrez explained that "50% of the public aid that exists is not used." The manager stressed that the entity he directs is "strongly promoting Next Generation funds" to take advantage of the boost they can provide to the field.
Regarding the investment provided by AgroBank, Gutiérrez highlighted that "we have gone from 18,000 to 29,000 million in one year." Resources that should serve to "facilitate innovation, digitization, technology to be more productive," he assured.
Finally, the director of AgroBank reflected on the fact that "this improvement in productivity should have an impact on making the field more profitable, sustainable and favor social growth." The purpose is to improve "the attractiveness of rural areas for young people and guarantee generational renewal".
