The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, has stressed this Thursday that Spain, in addition to being a major agri-food power, "is also a power in agrotechnology, thanks to its capacity to develop innovative solutions and to a specialized business and scientific ecosystem".
At the closing of the Forum of Innovative Regions 2026, held within the framework of Expo Agritech 2026 in Málaga, Planas called for "the strategic role of innovation" to address climate change, pressure on natural resources, and the need to strengthen the profitability and competitiveness of farms. "Innovation is key for the present and the future of the sector," he emphasized.
In the face of these challenges, he insisted that knowledge and new technologies must be extended to all farms and provide answers to the real needs of farmers and ranchers, with special attention to small and medium-sized farms, which usually have less capacity to invest in technology or to access specialized advice.
Along these lines, he highlighted the role of universities, research centers, and specialized companies, which allow Spain not only to offer high-quality food and compete in international markets, but also to create and export technological solutions applied to the primary sector.
As an example of this potential, the department led by Planas has promoted the "Spain AgrifoodTech" seal, an initiative intended to distinguish innovative companies in the agri-food sector and to strengthen the international projection of the Spanish sector.
The minister recalled that Spain is the European Union country with the highest farm income, which has exceeded 39,000 million euros, in addition to ranking as the EU’s fourth-largest agri-food exporter and seventh worldwide.
Planas stressed that these achievements "are the result of the effort and professionalism of farmers, ranchers, and fishers, but also of the technological progress and innovation of the agri-food sector".
During his appearance, he underscored the opportunity presented by new genomic techniques (NTG) to improve plant varieties in a precise and safe manner. In this regard, he highlighted Spain’s commitment so that the new regulatory framework for the NTG becomes a reality and can be fully applied in 2028.
In his view, it is "one of the most important regulatory changes for European agricultural biotechnology since the nineties and an opportunity that Spain is in a position to take advantage of thanks to its scientific, business and productive capabilities".
At the end of the event, he visited the La Vega Innova booth, the ministry’s innovation center located in San Fernando de Henares (Madrid), which has consolidated itself as a point of reference for promoting entrepreneurship and digitalization across the entire agri-food chain.
The minister highlighted the talent and commitment of young people in the modernization of the agri-food sector. He also spoke with students of Vocational Training in Agriculture and Technology who are taking part in the hackathon organized by La Vega Innova, an event in which they develop technological solutions applied to the field.
Planas has emphasized that initiatives of this kind bring innovation in the agri-food sector closer to young talent and highlight Spain’s potential to continue growing as a reference in agrotechnology.
Spain is among the countries that have made the most of the cooperation measure of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), funded through the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (Feader), to set up operational groups and innovative projects.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has supported nearly 270 innovative projects of supra-regional scope, with more than 146 million euros in aid granted.
In addition, Planas spoke at the event for the delivery of the "Agricultor Vests 2026", at which he presented the awards to the distinguished professionals in the three categories: innovation, application of technology, and sustainability.
In this context, the minister stressed the importance of giving visibility and recognition to the work of farmers and livestock breeders, whom he identified as role models for the sector and the main actors in its transformation.
Tax reductions for farmers and livestock breeders
Furthermore, the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has stated that the Ministry of Finance has published this Thursday in the Official State Gazette (BOE) the order that develops the objective estimation method of the Personal Income Tax (IRPF) for 2027 and the simplified special regime of Value Added Tax (VAT), which incorporates exceptional tax relief measures for farmers and ranchers.
"The discussions and meetings that we have held with agricultural organizations in recent months have led to the approval of compensation measures for the increase in the prices of agricultural diesel, also of fishing diesel, also of fertilizers," he said, specifying that "we already have disbursed more than 500 million euros that have reached more than 250,000 farmers across our entire country in terms of fertilizers and also financing of the working capital necessary for all."
Along these lines, he detailed that "today we add one more element," with reference to the approval of the horizontal order for the taxation of IRPF modules, "and it means that the horizontal reduction will be for all of the contributory elements of the farmer subject to the modules regime, that is to say, approximately some 800,000 filers in Spain, from a 10% reduction."
To this "is added a 35% decrease in investments related to the purchase of agricultural diesel, beyond the subsidies that I mentioned earlier, and likewise of 10% in the case of fertilizers."
"I believe that all of this are very important elements and I want to reflect what is the overall figure for what the decision approved and published by the Ministry of Finance entails, which will be applied in the next IRPF return, that adds up to a total of 860 million euros that are added to the 1,174 million euros from the measures approved up to now."
In short, Plana stated that "we exceed 2,000 million euros; just so you get an idea, the country that follows us in the European Union is France, which is around a figure of 500 million euros," so that "we multiply by four the second European country in terms of support for the increase in this situation," he concluded.