The Regional Secretary for Agriculture and Forestry highlighted today the increased investment that the Regional Government is making in agricultural roads throughout the region during this term, which is a direct contribution to the development of the sector and the reduction of production costs.

"The Regional Government, making use of Community funds, will invest about six million Euros in agricultural roads on the island of São Miguel in the current term, which represents an increase of 66% compared to the amount invested in the previous term," said João Ponte. In fact, the investment in agricultural roads doubled from 7.3 to 14.5 million Euros.

The Secretary for Agriculture spoke at the signing ceremony of the contract work for the improvement of Lomba da Cruz agricultural road in the parish of Santo António, municipality of Ponta Delgada, representing an investment of more than 167 thousand Euros that will be carried out by IROA-Regional Institute of Agrarian Planning.

João Ponte stressed that the Regional Government has worked to provide farmers with better conditions, develop agriculture and, above all, to inspire confidence in the future of the sector.

"Despite the responses that have been provided and will continue to be provided to emergency situations, the Regional Government maintains the investment in structuring projects for the future, particularly in terms of roads, water supply and electrification of farms, in order to give farmers better working conditions," said João Ponte.

The government official considered that "the very demanding and challenging times we are going through need signs of hope and confidence, with the intervention Santo António being an example of this." As he also noted, the Regional Government is aware that there is still a way to go in terms of improving agricultural infrastructures, despite everything that has already been done.

However, João Ponte warned that the future investments, using Community funds, must always be rigorously assessed and with a clear definition of priorities, taking into account their impact on the daily lives of farmers and the fact that financial resources are not unlimited.

The intervention in the Lomba da Cruz agricultural road, covering an extension of about one kilometre, will benefit almost two dozen farms located in the Agrarian Planning Perimeter (POA) of Ponta Delgada Milk Basin.