We soon might be seeing festivals celebrating plastic instead of annual strawberry festivals, Opposition leader Adrian Delia said on Friday.

Speaking in Mġarr, where the annual strawberry festival takes place, Dr Delia insisted the government did not care about agriculture. 

The government took away everything: power from local councils and funding from farmers, he said. He noted there was a decrease in budgetary measures helping farmers.

He also warned of recent statistics showing we were consuming less Maltese produce.

The Nationalist Party is proposing to tap into European regulations to promote fresh Maltese produce. It is also proposing that farms and farming land could be transferred to other relatives besides children, as is the case under current regulations.

The Maltese countryside was also important to us, he said, adding that the Nationalist Party wanted farming to continue. The window of opportunity to save our countryside and natural environment was closing, he warned.

Read: The PN's proposals on agriculture

Turning to reports that air quality deaths in Malta were more than twice what was previously thought, Dr Delia said close to 600 people died prematurely because of the dwindling air quality.

The government did not care about that which surrounds us, he said, adding the farming sector needed to be given priority.