"The brown stain of abandoned fields will continue to multiply as long as there is a profitability crisis and young people do not see the countryside as an attractive, viable and comparable activity to any other economic field," says Cristóbal Aguado, president of the Valencian Farmers Association AVA. -ASAJA upon knowing the record of abandoned lands that the Valencian Community has registered in 2023.
The figure, 2,290 hectares of abandoned crops in 2023, means that Valencian agriculture will break its "historical record" of agricultural land left uncultivated by reaching 173,676 hectares. Regarding the issue, which, according to Aguado, turns the Valencian countryside into "Europe's red lantern", the same agricultural association had already warned last Friday, when it reported on the battered state of the Valencian primary sector.
From AVA-ASAJA they regret that Valencia continues to be the autonomous community with the largest abandoned area in all of Spain, followed by Castilla-La Mancha (157,621 Ha), Andalusia (127,492 Ha), Castilla y León (118,428 Ha) and Aragón (114,991 Ha). ). They also highlight that while Valencian agriculture lost agricultural land, the whole of Spain recovered 5,365 hectares of crops in 2023 and was left with 1,037,874 uncultivated hectares.
In addition to the Valencian Community, the regions that experienced significant increases in abandoned surface were Extremadura (19%) and Aragón (2.3%), compared to decreases especially in Castilla y León (-4%), Murcia (-2 .3%) and Catalonia (-2%).
The main Valencian crops suffered significant declines in their surfaces. Citrus fruits (mainly oranges, tangerines and lemons) lost 1,633 hectares, vineyards 921 hectares, almond trees 592 hectares and stone fruits (peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums, loquats and cherries) fell by 635 hectares.
On the contrary, they recovered the lands in the olive grove (778 Ha recovered), the carob tree (337 Ha) and the vegetables and flowers (577 Ha). Persimmon slowed its high rate of field abandonment with 51 fewer hectares in 2023. Finally, crop alternatives such as avocado and kiwi grew by 30% in the last year: 848 more hectares of avocado and 142 more hectares of kiwi.
It is in this context that Aguado asks politicians to "move from words to actions and implement a consensual roadmap that will ensure the economic sustainability of agricultural holdings, reactivate the generational change and recover abandoned fields."
