AGRIFISH | Portugal approves administrative simplification and promotes innovation to make the sector more competitive and sustainable

At the AGRIFISH meeting (Council of Agriculture and Fisheries Ministers of the European Union) and given the current context, Portugal defended the importance of providing stability and predictability to farmers. He called for simplification and de-bureaucratization to continue and for support for productivity growth to be reinforced with the aim of improving farmers’ income.

“I cannot fail to mention the role of research and innovation, digitalization and automation in strengthening the competitiveness of our agricultural sector”, said José Manuel Fernandes at the first AGRIFISH Council in which he participated as Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries.

He emphasized that farmers must receive a fair price for what they produce and there is a need to find balance in the value chain. It is necessary to move towards a European observatory and measures to combat unfair commercial practices. In commercial agreements it is necessary to apply the principle of reciprocity.

Ordinance to simplify processes

The Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries announced that he is already working on an ordinance to apply simplification measures, which should come into force during the month of May. The end of the fallow obligation, the possibility of diversification measures with an alternative to rotation and the exemption from controls and the end of sanctions for non-compliance for farms up to ten hectares are examples of simplification measures that will benefit more than 100 thousand Portuguese farmers .

The text proposed for the ordinance will be submitted for consultation by the Farmers’ Confederations. This ordinance follows a proposal from the European Commission to simplify some standards of the Agricultural and Environmental Conditions of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which was recently approved by the Council and the European Parliament.