UPA-PV urged to encourage Organic Agriculture
Organic agriculture in Valencia only represents 3.81% of the total Spanish production. Aware of the situation of agriculture in Valencia, mired in a crisis of prices at which we add the interference of an unstable climate, the Union of Small Farmers and Ranchers (MSU-PV) proposed to the Department of Agriculture that includes the organic agriculture production as a partial solution to the crisis afflicting the sector for years, promoting the significant increase in the production and promotion of consumption of these products.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, to date, organic agriculture in Valencia has not been taken into account by the regional government as a tool to improve the sector's performance and is not entered on the agenda of the Department. Although there has been a considerable increase in production in recent years in the Community (going from 18,000 hectares in 2001 to 30,800 hectares in 2005, the last published data) we are far from neighboring communities such as Andalusia, which devotes over 400,000 hectares to organic agriculture, Aragon, with over 74,000 hectares and Castilla-La Mancha with nearly 65,000. In fact, UPA-PV points out that organic agriculture in Valencia represents only 3'81% of the total Spanish production.
UPA-PV believes that organic agriculture is one of the options for future viability and better for the agricultural sector. It is a major source of jobs, which can benefit the farmers, especially young people, with significant progress thanks to the new demands of society in the twenty-first century.
The organization points out that organic agriculture achieves three goals: economic profitability for the farmer (which allows them to live in dignity), healthy and quality products for the consumer and respect for the environment with the goal of not damaging the land for future generations (because the organic producers are adapting to local, designing a model of production to maintain the productivity and quality over time).