The government will provide financial support to farmers who were left without food for their animals due to the fire that engulfed the municipalities of Odemira (Beja district), Aljezur and Monchique (Faro district), it was announced this Friday.
“We are going to provide immediate assistance in the purchase of animal feed. This is the financial support that will be provided to the head,” said the Minister of Agriculture and Food, Maria do Seu Antunes.
The official spoke to reporters at the end of a meeting with farmers affected by the fire, which is believed to have ended on Wednesday, held at the Odeseix Parish Council, in Aljezur, in the Faro region.
Believing the blaze left a “destructive scenario”, Maria do Seu Antunes said the “biggest problem” for the affected farmers is the lack of food for the animals as “pastures and fodder burned” in the blaze.
“We will give a value per animal,” which was calculated “taking into account what the animal eats, and we added an inflation factor to the previously assigned values,” he said, adding that in the case of cattle, the aid “could cost 38 euros.” ”, and for sheep – “25 or 28 euros”.
According to the person in charge of agriculture, the fire in Odemir caused damage to 10 livestock breeders, the total herd of which is 300 cows and 40 sheep.
“We have also joined the drought-hit and now fire-affected beekeeping sector, which is having difficulty maintaining the hives and their swarms,” the minister said, but she doesn’t need the type of help in this case.
Maria do Seu Antunes said she intends to sign an executive order providing for this support today, assuming that the process “will be very fast” and that “in the next few days, this amount will be able to reach the farmers.”
When asked by journalists whether the process would be bureaucratic, the minister replied that “polls [dos prejuízos] done” and that farmers would only need to “fill out a form”.
“We feel from farmers that this is valuable help and that it will come as soon as possible,” he said, stressing that the guardianship will assess “the situation with farmers and municipalities in order to monitor the situation.” .
The minister stressed that at the end of the fire season, the government will take an emergency measure with funds from the Rural Development Program (PDR) to support farmers who have lost infrastructure as a result of the fires.
Before the meeting, Maria do Seu Antunes visited two farms affected by the fires, one in São Miguel (Odemira) and the other in Odeseix (Aljezur), to talk to the owners and learn about their difficulties.
“When we reach areas of this territory where there is agricultural production, water and green spaces, the fires will stop,” so “we need to work on this dimension, and we will do it from an integrated point of view, below,” he added.
The fire, which began on Saturday and was declared under control at 10:15 a.m. on Wednesday, continued into the aftermath phase this morning due to “some hot spots” that are “still of concern,” according to a Civil Protection source. .
According to the website of the National Office of Emergency Management and Civil Protection (ANEPC), at 15:00, 721 operators were involved in the fire, supported by 242 vehicles and three aircraft.
A rural fire in an area of bush and pine forest broke out in the Bayona area, in the parish of Sant Teotoniou, municipality of Odemira, at midday on Saturday and penetrated the Algarve municipalities of Monchique and Aljezur.
The area of ignition is about 8400 hectares in a perimeter of 50 kilometers.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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