Formentera Council (CiF) president Jaume Ferrer and Jaume Escandell, president of the Farmers' Co-operative (Cooperativa del Camp), signed an agreement today making official the lease of farming equipment for use by the Co-op. Purchased by the administration, the farmers' group will use the stock of industrial tools and machinery to “push forward with the farmland reserve project and still other initiatives aimed at reviving Formentera's farming sector,” explained the CiF president, who said the equipment would also help boost “other efforts to improve the quality of our natural landscapes here on the island.”
Specifically, the Council will allow the Co-op use of an electric forklift, a hand pallet truck, an electric pallet truck weigher, a tractor, a loader shovel, a seeder, a two-row super chisel, a rotavator, a reversible plow, a mower, a fertiliser, a suspended hydraulic sprayer, a trailer, a rectangular baler, a grain harvester and a cropper trailer. The lease is valid through the end of this year and can be extended. The total value of the equipment surpasses 320,000 euros.
The chair of the Farmers' Co-op, Carlos Marí, was also present at the signing of the pact. He called the Council's decision to lend the machinery “monumental for the Co-operative in terms of the autonomy it will give us”. Till now, the Co-operative has contracted out work on its farmland reserve project to third-party farmers. From today, the group will be able to take charge directly of such efforts. Marí pointed out that the Co-op could also begin using equipment like the tractor and harvester to help its own members and other interested individuals. The equipment will mainly be used to work the 150 hectares of land that comprise the local farmland reserve so far.