The Ministry of Rural Environment and Agricultural Policy of the Principality has decided to strengthen support for women who want to start their agricultural activity, with an additional increase of 5,000 euros within the framework of the program "Join the agro," with the aim of facilitating generational change in the farms.
According to the regional government detailed in a press release, alongside this economic supplement for women, a specific scoring is also incorporated within the selection criteria for the aids. This advantage is also maintained for new registrations of professionals aged between 41 and 56 years.
The agricultural advisory system now includes a specific priority for female farmers, while the training actions in management, digitalization, innovation, and sustainability particularly focus on women and shared ownership farms.
On the other hand, the farm succession program promoted by the Land Bank has recorded 13 applications from women in its first two calls, with a 60% increase between them, going from five to eight files. The selection criteria give preference to succession processes in which the farm is transferred to a woman.
The aid lines for the modernization of farms also incorporate advantageous conditions for women and allow for funding investments aimed at robotization, improving energy efficiency, digitalization, adapting facilities, or recovering farms and estates currently out of use.
Through the Leader strategies, the eleven local action groups support projects for agricultural activity, agro-industry, economic diversification, and entrepreneurship in rural areas, with mechanisms that prioritize initiatives led by women. In the fishing sector, the Principality has participated in the establishment of the new Association of Women in Fishing of Asturias (Marea) and has introduced for the first time a criterion of two additional points in the scoring system to facilitate women's access to professional harvesting of barnacles.