An insurance scheme covering farmers for any damages and loss of crops due to storms or diseases is being studied, Agriculture Parliamentary Secretary Roderick Galdes said yesterday.
He was addressing stakeholders at a consultation meeting on the Rural Development Programme for Malta 2014-2020.
This was the second such programme to be drafted, giving policymakers the benefit of hindsight having evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of the first seven-year scheme, Mr Galdes said.
“I cannot understand how, despite the investment in subsidies on fruit and vegetables, the quality still did not improve since 2004. Also, why was the farmers’ market allowed to look like a pigsty for all these years? Three days after assuming office, I was in Brussels being told that they were about to close down our abattoir because it did not conform to EU standards.
“The future of agriculture depends on adequate infrastructure,” he insisted.
The meeting was also addressed by Janet Dwyer, from the Community and Country Research Institute in the UK, which has been conducting an analysis in the run-up to the consultation document released yesterday.
Prof. Dwyer explained that the programme would be building on Malta’s strengths, which included its distinctive character and the wide diversity of products.
This would be strongly linked to the marketing and branding of Maltese produce, which depended on better consumer awareness of the fact that a variety of products equalled a healthy diet.
She stressed the importance of cooperation between all stakeholders, including farmers’ cooperatives, retailers, local councils, NGOs and the environment watchdog.
“I know it’s difficult, but it’s imperative that you work together because your farms are so small and the challenges so big.”
The meeting was reminded that scarcity of water remains a growing problem and the little water pumped from boreholes was becoming increasingly contaminated with nitrates. The way forward was new investment in infrastructure to ensure greater rainwater capture, such as reservoirs and gutters on buildings.
Bioenergy from livestock waste should be considered as one of the ways of generating renewable energy on farms, participants were told.
The document advocates the setting up of a rural hub – a ‘one stop shop’ or centre which farmers can visit to receive advice on how to benefit from Rural Development Programme funding schemes and also from technical advice.
The livestock sector faces challenges because it was dependent on imported feed, rendering it very vulnerable to the world market and to price hikes. Malta requires a new focus on forage production, which has been largely ignored, the document says.
The analysis, the meeting was told, expressed concern over landscape degradation through abandonment, poor maintenance of rubble walls and creeping development.