The Minister of Agriculture, Maria do Céu Antunes, clarified this Saturday that the Regional Directorates of Agriculture will not disappear in the context of the transfer of powers to the Commissions for Coordination and Regional Development (CCDR).
“Let’s clarify once and for all: there is no extinction of the regional directorates, no one will concentrate the regional directorates in Porto or Évora or Coimbra or Lisbon or Faro. What we are going to do is keep the structure as it is, but the director will join the body of the coordination committee so that the policy can really be articulated,” said the official, speaking in Boticas, on the sidelines of the local agricultural cooperative’s 70th anniversary celebrations.
Last week, in the Council of Ministers, the government approved the resolution initiating the transfer and division of powers from regional state services to the Commissions for Coordination and Regional Development (CCDR), in nine areas, it is estimated that the renovation will be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2024.
The awards to be transferred relate to the fields of economy, culture, education, vocational training, health, nature and forest conservation, infrastructure, spatial planning and agriculture.
Over the past week, various organizations in the agricultural sector have sharply criticized the reform announced by the government, pointing to the disappearance of the Regional Directorates of Agriculture and Fisheries (DRAP) and the removal of services from the territory.
Today Maria do Céu Antunes stressed that there is no question of extinction of the DRAP.
According to the minister, the director “will be the interlocutor with the Ministry of Agriculture, which will continue to determine agricultural policy for Portugal”.
“And then, just like what’s happening today, it’s our regional directors, it’s our decentralized services that will continue to run the same policies,” he insisted.
Asked about the closure of buildings related to agricultural services, the minister replied with “no”.
“DRAPN’s headquarters in Mirandela will remain in Mirandela and the Director, who will continue to be the Director of Agriculture, although she may take on a different role, which is coordination within the scope of the CCDR, will continue to do what she knows how to do so well. to do, which is to walk all over the northern area and help our farmers find solutions and opportunities to keep working,” he explained.
This, he stressed, is a reform included in the program of the XXIII government, which aims to “deepen decentralization, improve democracy and public services”. Areas such as education, health, culture, nature and forest management, vocational training, infrastructure, but also agriculture and fisheries will be part of this package, he added.
“Because regional development goes beyond agriculture, but it cannot do without agriculture. And here we are in this process, we integrate this structure so that we can work, and continue to have close services because we really want to improve agriculture in Portugal want to develop”he stressed.
Incidentally, he added that precisely for this reason, for this region in particular – Trás-os-Montes – for the programming cycle starting in January next year, it is planned to “increase aid by about 30%”.
“So that more agriculture, more sustainable agriculture can be practiced in this area and with that we can achieve an economic and social development that is consistent with what the Boticas cooperative has been doing for 70 years,” he stressed.
Maria do Céu Antunes participated in the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Cooperativa Agro Rural de Boticas (CAPOLIB), in the north of the district of Vila Real, which has 1,024 employees and works in the fields of Barrosã meat, goat meat, honey and forests.
Source: DN
