The Pego City Council has supported the creation of a land bank between your uncultivated parcels to strengthen the agricultural sector of the municipality. The initiative was publicly presented yesterday in an act at the House of Culture of the municipality.
This project has come to Pego together with the collaboration of the rural revitalization agency Buscatierras, whose objective is to promote the economic, cultural and social stimulation of the rural environment.
Farmland in Pego
The Buscatierras technical team has prepared a study to determine the state of the farmland in the municipal area with the aim of creating a land bank, a non-developable land management service. According to the data, there are currently 1.500 cultivated hectares in Pego, approximately 40% of the cultivable plots. A higher percentage than the rest of the municipalities of the region and the province.
However, the currently abandoned agricultural parcels are 735 hectares. According to the technicians, this is a low figure, although the problem lies in the fact that these plots are "small and separate, which complicates the mechanization of the sector in the municipality."
For this reason, the objective of the land bank is to recover the abandoned plots as well as group them to get more extensive crops. For this, from Buscatierras they have enabled a section on its website in which the owners can provide the data of the lands to assign them, "either free of charge and disinterestedly or through a lease so that other people can cultivate them ”.
Reduce phytosanitary treatments
Yesterday a proposal was also presented by the Cooperativa de Pego. In their initiative they bet on reduce phytosanitary treatments and replace them with more natural alternatives with the aim of increasing biodiversity to combat pests "with their own predators", clarified Pepe Pastor, the president of the Cooperative.
Pastor also highlighted the importance of growing larger crops, "We have to try to reduce smallholdings", in addition to attracting young people to the sector "facilitating their incorporation with advice and technical aids".
Finally, the mayor of the municipality, Enrique Moll, concluded the meeting: “Pego has been a traditionally agricultural town and we believe that the sector must be strong, but for this we must improve and adapt to new times, make it more attractive and easy to work in the field ”.
