The debate on the intensive production model of Catalan agriculture and livestock is increasing against the backdrop of the serious drought, which Catalonia has been going through for three years, and the demands of the sector for more than a week that have led the Government to announce support measures to ease bureaucracy and address high prices.
Although small and medium-sized agricultural extensions predominate, in Catalonia there are nearly 900 macrofarms, of which 288 are active and depend on internal basins, according to data from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition.
Between all surfaces, 30% of the resources of the reservoirs managed by the Generalitat are consumed, which are at 15.2% of their capacity, according to the Catalan Water Agency (ACA).
“We produce for the population.
Restricting consumption in agriculture by 80% or 50% in livestock farming is letting us die,” they say from Unió de Pagesos, which criticizes the management of the water crisis by the Government of Pere Aragonès.
Environmental platforms also consider that there has not been a good strategy to alleviate the drought and manage reservoir reserves.
They assure that the water crisis is not only due to the lack of rain, but because the correct measures have not been taken in sectors that represent a large consumption of water, such as agriculture or tourism.
Although the Government will renew the irrigation systems and will not allow, while the emergency lasts, the start of new activities that require intensive use of water.
“There is no point in modernizing irrigation to save money if it is used to double production,” explains Dante Maschio, spokesperson for Aigua es Vida, who maintains that more and more hectares are falling into the hands of companies.
The increase in performance is due to increases in production costs, as pointed out by Germán Domínguez, spokesperson for the Unió de Pagesos del Baix Llobregat.
“If they ask us for a specific number of an animal or plant species, we have to double it just to try to cover the expenses,” explains Domínguez by phone, who states that there has been a “misuse of water” and the payos have been left unprotected
.
.
“We must support the small and medium-sized farmer or rancher.
Promote a transition towards an agroecological model,” details Maschio.
The same happens in the livestock sector.
Catalonia is, after Aragon, the second autonomous community with the most macro farms in Spain and the first with the most pigs per square kilometer.
It produces 7.9 million pigs a year among the farms that are spread across the four provinces, according to Greenpeace data.
Of the total, Barcelona and Girona, which are in an emergency phase due to water scarcity, represent 34% of production, although Lleida leads the ranking with almost five million heads of livestock.
It is one pig for each inhabitant of the community.
The figures from the Catalan Executive indicate that, among the extensive livestock and aquaculture areas, only nine are in an area without restrictions due to drought;
28 in the municipalities with the alert level;
207 in those who are in an exceptional phase;
and 129 in populations in emergency I, the most severe stage of the Special Drought Plan (PES).
In the last year, Catalonia sold more than 1.5 million tons to countries such as China, France or Japan, among others.
The water crisis has not prevented pig areas from growing in Catalonia.
In the last 10 years, 16% did so, although in 2022 the number of livestock extensions decreased by 1%, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Livestock.
“We have been saying for some time that we must reduce the livestock herd.
It is the only solution in a context of climate change and with increasingly recurrent and prolonged droughts,” explains Luis Ferreirim, head of Agriculture and Livestock at Greenpeace.
Decreasing production in the extensions can be “traumatic” for ranchers, but “necessary,” according to Ferreirim, who explains that these macrofarms consume large amounts of water to supply livestock or for sanitary cleaning tasks while contaminating groundwater.
For the Unió de Pagesos spokesperson, a rancher having to “sacrifice half of the cattle is not viable” because it would mean the closure of the farm.
Meanwhile, the Generalitat has asked farmers and ranchers to present proposals to ease restrictions on water consumption.
Government sources explain that they are studying how to make the most restrictive measures more flexible without affecting other economic activities.
The
payos
are inclined to compensate the expenditure they make with an increase in the limits for industrial activities, such as tourism.
“It is about deciding on a country model.
If they let us die while tourists come and consume the water and leave or if we help small farmers and ranchers,” says Domínguez.
Environmental platforms also call for closing the taps for the current tourism model because, they say, it is not sustainable over time.
In 2023, Catalonia will welcome 16.9 million tourists, 21% more than the previous year, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
For now,
President
Aragonés sent a letter to the Government on Tuesday to request a reduction in the prices of diesel for agricultural, livestock and fishing use, in addition to changes in the food chain law and the extension of the use of the digital exploitation notebook up to 2026.
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