“Climate change is there, it is not an issue. No one with common sense disputes the existence of climate change, which farmers see every day“, stated the president of the Confederation of Farmers of Portugal (CAP), Álvaro Mendonça e Moura, in an interview with Lusa.
The impact on the agricultural sector is visible, for example, in the harvest, which today takes place a month earlier than a few decades ago.
Faced with this problem, the agricultural sector has made a “huge effort” to be more efficient, particularly with regard to the use of water, a condition that it said is necessary for a company to be competitive.
“The farmer not only understands climate change, but also has every interest in adapting in order to be more efficient and this is the path he has taken. Probably more than any other sector“, he stressed.
However, Álvaro Mendonça e Moura noted that “many people in the city” have not yet realized this investment that the agricultural sector has been making over the years.
This adaptation to climate change also involves the introduction of new crops because “we cannot continue producing in 2024 as in 1960“.
The CAP leader also considered that modernization is also “an opportunity” for agriculture to adapt to what the market wants today.
However, Álvaro Mendonça and Moura criticized what he said was “environmental extremism” that does not accept agriculture and that would like the entire landscape to be “a leisure place for city dwellers to go once a year”stressing that environmental, social and economic sustainability cannot be dissociated.
“These are the ones who then go to the supermarket to buy rice from Thailand and mango from Brazil, ignoring the carbon footprint and the products used” in these foods, he added.
Thus, the former ambassador lamented “environmental dogmatism”, stressing that the focus must be placed on the production of healthy food, with the lowest possible impact.
“Whoever is against immigration is against the development of the country”
The president of the Confederation of Farmers of Portugal (CAP) stated that, “whoever is against immigration is against the development of the country”, stressing that any government must go through Social Concertation to “listen to others”.
“It is very important for us all to realize that anyone who is against immigration is against the country’s development. This needs to be internalized“, defended Álvaro Mendonça e Moura.
The former ambassador, who assumed the presidency of CAP last year, highlighted the importance of foreign workers for sectors such as agriculture, tourism or construction, which depend on this workforce “for their survival”.
In the particular case of agriculture, the president of the confederation recalled that some companies have up to 300 immigrant workerssince in Portugal it would be impossible to recruit this number.
