The future ‘Family Agriculture Law’ must reward them for their contribution to the environment

Food production accumulates in the hands of a few, and increasingly. This is the main conclusion of an exhaustive report prepared by the NGO, which shows that in Spain Agricultural and livestock farms are increasingly larger and more concentrated in a few handswhich threatens agriculture, life in rural areas and, ultimately, the professional model of small and medium agriculture.

The report ““Big tractor eats the small one.” reflects that the number of agricultural holdings in the EU has plummeted in recent years. According to Eurostat, In 2020 there were 9.1 million farms left, about 5.3 million less than in 2005, which means a 37% decrease. This decline does not affect everyone equally: small farms tend to disappear.

Meanwhile, in our country, although small farms are still the majority and represent 60% of the sector, the trend towards concentration is also clear as some data shows.

If the evolution of the Spanish countryside is analyzed between 2007 and 2021, it is observed that:

• About 18% of Spanish farms have disappeared. A reduction in the number of farms that has exclusively affected small farms, 36%, compared to large farms that have practically doubled, increasing by 105%.

• The largest farms have represented half of the total economic production in 2021, despite the fact that they are only 7% of the total number of farms. This indicates a strong concentration of economic power in the hands of relatively few farmers and businesses. Its economic output has grown an impressive 379% between 2007 and 2021.

• The average net income of all commercial farms in Spain increased by 46%, but these figures hide growing inequality. While mega farms have increased their average net income since 2007 by 82%, economically smaller farms have lost average income.

This situation is aggravated by unfair access to financial aid, which does nothing but increase the gap between small and large farms. Thus, and even though Mega farms, as we have mentioned, represent only 7% of agricultural farms in our country and receive 23% of direct aid from the CAP. In comparison, small commercial farms, or 60% of the sector, receive 29% of subsidies.

Furthermore, the largest farms are also those with the best access to private financing, since they have the 53% of debt total of the Spanish agrarian system and have strongly increased their loans by 248%.

Since 2007, small farms have lost 287,000 jobs

These changes in the field fully affect daily life in the rural areaswhich are witnessing a progressive aging of the population, an increase in exclusion and unemployment.

Once again the data proves it: Since 2007, small farms have lost 287,000 jobs (annual work units) during that period, that is, close to the half of its workforce.

This increasingly unequal panorama poses a risk for the Spanish countryside and is the origin of many problems, and requires urgent solutions from Spain. Let us not forget that dynamic and prosperous rural areas are crucial for a sustainable, equitable and resilient Spain to climate change..

In fact, the rural areas and their communities, which They cover 84% of the territory of the Spanish state y They house almost 16% of the populationplay a vital role in protecting landscapes and natural resources and in producing food for Europeans.

This report highlights the growing inequality in the agricultural sector,” says Helena Moreno, head of sustainable food systems at the NGO. Small farms are suffocated by the conditions and the little support of policies like the CAP, and only the large ones, which do not need aid because they are profitable per se, hoard land, water, and power.

Laws such as the future Family Farming Law should strongly support small and medium family farmers and reward the social and environmental benefits they bring to society. As well as favoring its transition towards a model that is more resilient to the climate and adapted to increasingly scarce resources such as water.