The regional secretary for Agriculture and Forestry secured today, in the Azorean Parliament, that the Government reckons with the necessary resources to continue the “purpose of the competitiveness of the rural enterprises and territories, in an environmentally sustainable way and socially stable and attractive”.

Speaking in the discussions on the Program of X Regional Government, which happen since Tuesday in Horta, Noé Rodrigues explained that the PRORURAL consecrates “good resources for the Azorean Agrarian-Forest sector, specially addressed at the producers and to the rural world”.

As he explained, that program not only “contains a strong support to the private investments of the farmers”, as “it equally induces a reduplicate effort of the regional public investment meant for the sector”, whether in the follow-up of the private investments, whether in the investment in the water, energy and accessibilities networks to the explorations or in the diversified support services to the farmers and to their explorations.

In what it concerns the milk unit, the regional secretary remembered that the Government, in an articulated way with the regional producers, developed initiatives that led to a “significant growth of the regional quota, warning, in this way, the growth of the production of milk without payment of fines”.

However, he emphasized that the strategy developed for this objective “wasn’t only meant for the removal of the fines”, having aimed equally at the “redimensioning of the dairy explorations and the reinforcement of the profit of the producers, namely for the associate support of the prize to the milk products”.

For Noé Rodrigues, a new challenge is now put to the meat unit, since the decision of breaking the regime of quotas, taken in 2003 and re-confirmed for 2014/2015, “introduces a factor of great instability and of unpredictability in the agents of the sector”.

Recognizing though to be different the predominant position of the European governments, the regional secretary promised to continue “defending the regime of quotas before all the competent entities, at national and Community level”.

Noé Rodrigues still insisted on the execution of the study promised by the European Commission on the social, economical and environmental impacts of the breaking the regime of quotas, for a better evaluation of the process, but he remembered that the common sense advises that “we get ready for the hypothesis of liberalization”.

It is therefore that “we are already working on a specific program and warning that it will allow compensating our producers and reinforcing the levels of competitiveness that the liberalization will predictably increase”, it revealed the governor.

The holder of the briefcase for Agriculture and Forestry also announced that the Government, contradicting the predominance of the animal productions, what there are several decades characterizes the sector, intends to reinforce the “initiatives intended for the diversification of the regional productive base.”