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Aid distributions begin for farmers affected by drought

ajudes ramaders1The Formentera Council, via the administration's office of agriculture, has begun this week to distribute aid to local stockbreeders in the form of animal feed. The hand-outs will be completed over the coming weeks.

The assistance is intended to compensate for reduced harvests of the crops traditionally used for animal feed. Following recent bouts of extremely dry weather on the island, local farmers found themselves without feed for livestock. Data from various national weather agencies confirm that precipitation in Formentera has dropped significantly in recent years.

The aid, distributed at the old Es Cap primary school, came in the form of packages composed of different feed products: cereal, protein feed and mixed feed for each head of sheep and goat, and a sack of barley flour for each head of pig.

Each of the packages has a value of €16.40. The most current census of island livestock counted 878 sheep, 201 goats and 94 pigs, meaning local stockbreeders were due €19,237 (VAT included) in total combined assistance.

To obtain the packages, Formentera stockbreeders belonging to the group Associació de Defensa Sanitària (ADS) presented vouchers provided by the Formentera office of agriculture.

Santi Juan, councillor of agriculture, noted that the feed packs represented “a special assistance package necessary in the wake of drought conditions experienced on the island. Thanks to a pre-existing convention between the local stockbreeders' association and the Formentera Council – as well as spending on vaccination drives – the aid in place for local farmers was already roughly thirty-two thousand euros.” The councilman underscored the Council's dedication to “preserving and promoting the Formentera countryside – a task that, in effect, depends in large part on the harvest our countryside is able to produce.”