The president of Asaja Córdoba, Fernando Adell, has demanded this Tuesday that the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for the period 2028-2034 "does not exclude farmers from aid merely for having reached retirement age" and argues that this option, already included in the European Commission's proposal for the next CAP, "must be withdrawn" in the negotiating process currently taking place in the community institutions.
According to Asaja in a statement, the Brussels plan introduces "a new orientation of income aid, with the aim of directing it primarily towards those who have agriculture as their main source of income, and establishes that, at the latest, by 2032, retirees would cease to be eligible for this type of support." This provision is integrated into the Commission's proposal for the CAP after 2027, currently in the debate phase.
Adell considers that "it is unacceptable to intend to use age as an automatic criterion to withdraw aid from farmers who continue to be linked to their farms and agricultural activity." The agricultural organization sees this approach as "especially concerning," especially in light of the high average age of the sector.
With data from the Ministry of Agriculture, 272,240 beneficiaries of CAP aid are over 65 years old, out of a total of 665,366 individuals with valid information, which amounts to nearly 41% of the total. That is to say, more than four out of ten individual beneficiaries of the CAP are over 65 years old, Asaja has emphasized.
In Adell's words, "Brussels cannot design the future CAP with its back to the reality of the European countryside. If more than four out of ten CAP beneficiaries are over 65 years old, excluding retirees would mean leaving out a very important part of those who currently receive this aid."
The organization also reminds that being over 65 does not necessarily mean having left the activity. In numerous family farms, the farmer "continues to participate in the management and maintenance of the farm, while the generational change occurs progressively and not through a simple change of ownership on a specific date."
Asaja Córdoba admits that the debate on generational change in the field is essential, but rejects that it be addressed at the expense of punishing older farmers. "We are totally in favor of facilitating the incorporation of young people and promoting generational change, but one thing is to incentivize young people to join and another very different thing is to automatically withdraw aid from those who have worked for decades in the field and continue to maintain a farm," Adell emphasized.
For the organization, the future CAP must differentiate between the need to promote the incorporation of young people and the real situation of thousands of family farms that remain active, avoiding decisions that could compromise their economic sustainability. Therefore, it calls on the Government of Spain and Spanish representatives in the EU to defend in the negotiation of the CAP 2028-2034 that "no farmer should be excluded from aid solely for having reached retirement age".
DIGITALIZATION AND BUREAUCRACY
In parallel, Asaja Córdoba has reiterated its opposition to the digital field notebook and the constant increase in administrative procedures and technological demands placed on farmers. As the organization has already defended, in line with the position of the Ministry of Agriculture, "any machine-readable format, or in other words, any type of file that can be uploaded digitally to any electronic registry of the Junta de Andalucía, should suffice to provide the farm notebook if requested".
The entity sees it as "especially contradictory that, while Brussels proposes to progressively exclude retired farmers from aid, new digital obligations continue to be imposed on a sector in which those over 65 represent such a significant part of the CAP beneficiaries".
From Asaja Córdoba, they warn that "one cannot ask older farmers to face more and more digital procedures and, at the same time, propose that due to their age they lose the right to aid. The CAP must adapt to the reality of farmers and not the other way around".
The organization insists that digitalization must be "a tool to facilitate work and reduce bureaucracy, and not a new obligation that generates costs, difficulties, and dependence on third parties, especially for older farmers".
Asaja Córdoba emphasizes, likewise, that the next CAP must ensure incomes, maintain agricultural activity, and promote generational renewal without excluding any cohort of farmers, and understands that the ongoing negotiation in Brussels must serve to rectify the proposal to exclude retirees.
In Adell's words, "European agriculture needs young people, but it also needs to recognize and protect those who have kept the countryside alive throughout their lives. Generational renewal cannot be built by expelling an essential part of current farmers from the CAP."