Unió de Pagesos (UP) foresees a poor winter cereal harvest in La Segarra due to the drought and warns that if it does not rain in the coming days, the campaign will be even "more catastrophic" than last year. "The damage is already extensive and if it doesn't rain it will be catastrophic," explains the union's regional coordinator, Xavier Recasens, who adds that dryland cereal growers are already suffering losses from the previous campaign.
Due to all that has happened, the union has called for a slow march of tractors for this Thursday, March 6 in Cervera with the aim of demanding that the Department of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda enable aid to compensate for these losses and to face the increase in production costs suffered by the sector.
At this time of year, the winter cereal crops should be advanced and are about to sprout, but the image of the fields in La Segarra shows just the opposite: plants that have not finished growing and with leaves that are drying up due to lack of water. And it is that most of the farms in the region are rainfed and, therefore, their irrigation depends exclusively on the rainwater that falls.
“This year the painting is very bad again because the lack of rain is extreme and the cereal is being lost. That, if it doesn't rain soon, will be irreversible”, says Recasens. The drought has already caused damage to the crops in La Segarra, which could worsen if the drought persists.
By way of example, Recasens explains that on a farm where they usually produce 3,500 kilos per hectare, last year the production fell to just over a thousand kilos and he warns that this year the citron may drop even more if it does not rain in the coming days. "What we didn't think would happen this year is happening: a catastrophic second harvest," says the farmer.
Unió de Pagesos quantified 180 million euros of winter cereal losses in the last campaign due to the effect of drought, frost and heat stroke. Given this and the fact that the forecasts for this campaign are not good either, they demand that the Department of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda enable aid.
Specifically, the union proposes an aid of 100 euros per hectare to alleviate the losses that the sector has suffered, a format that the Department has already granted to the sweet fruit and almond sectors. The UP coordinator in La Segarra considers it a "symbolic" figure that in no case can cover the losses that the sector has had, but that would serve to "be able to continue and that many farms do not have the dilemma of whether to close or not ”.
To make their discomfort clear and demand that the administration enable aid, this Thursday a slow march of tractors will take place in Cervera. The union hopes to gather around seventy vehicles. “We wouldn't like to beg, what we want is for people to listen to us, for them to be serious,” explains Recasens.
The march will leave Cervera around four in the afternoon and will travel a few kilometers along the L-311 road towards Ponts, to later turn around and return to the starting point. Before the slow march of the tractors, the farmers will hold an assembly, at 1:00 p.m., and then they will have a joint meal.
