According to the Regional Secretary for Agriculture and Forestry the existing agrarian planning tools in the Azores supported by Community funding, such as agrarian planning perimeters, incentives for land acquisition as well as the investments in roads, water supply and electrification of farms, remain essential for the modernisation and development of the agricultural sector.
 
"All these agrarian planning tools have helped our agriculture to take a leap in terms of quality and quantity," stressed João Ponte, who spoke at the opening of the conference on "The Dynamics of Agrarian Planning. Land Parcelling Problems in the Azores," a joint initiative of IROA-Regional Institute of Agrarian Planning and the São Miguel Agricultural Association.
 
João Ponte pointed out that IROA, which manages 28% of the territory classified as Regional Agricultural Reserve and the Agrarian Planning Perimeters, has made good use of the many million Euros invested. In fact, they have contributed to the construction of 316 kilometres of new agricultural roads, a water storage with capacity over 500 thousand cubic meters and the electrification of 434 milking parlours.
 
"Currently, more than 50% of the milk produced on São Miguel Island is refrigerated and this is quite relevant in terms of farmers' income," stressed the Regional Secretary.
 
Between 2001 and 2018, the acquisition of 1,900 hectares of land was approved under the Credit Support System for the Purchase of Land (SICATE) and the Incentive Scheme for the Purchase of Agricultural Land (RICTA). It represents an investment an investment of 25 million Euros on the part of farmers and 3.4 million Euros from the Regional Government.
 
Through the early retirement measure, a total of 12,300 hectares of land was transferred to new farmers.
 
"All this has contributed to the fact that land ownership in the Azores to be completely different today, as the number of farms has been reduced by almost 50% and the average area per farm has more than double," said João Ponte. According to him, this effort will continue insofar as it improves farmers' working conditions, reduces production costs, increases production and income, generates more employment, fosters new investments and contributes to exports.
 
The government official also stated that the 9% increase in this year's Investment Plan in agricultural roads, water supply and electrification of farms evidences the Regional Government's ambition to do more and better for one the main driving forces of Azorean economy: agriculture.
 
"The Regional Government works on a daily basis to ensure better agricultural infrastructures in the Azores so that farmers may produce at increasing lower costs, proving quality raw materials to industries that should be able to better value what they sell to better pay producers," said João Ponte.