This Wednesday 5 February at 9.00am, islanders are invited to the central offices of local government for an information session on funding for forest fire prevention in 2019-2020. Organisers describe the target audience as property owners near forested areas, members of the island’s farmers’ co-operative, biomass handlers and the public at large.

Speakers include Krystelle Roussel of the Agrarian and Fishing Guarantee Fund of the Balearic Islands (FOGAIBA) and Inés Landa of the Costa da Morte forest management service. FOGAIBA has pledged to give islands in the archipelago €1.7 million or more to manage forest parcels in areas where forest fires pose a medium- to high-risk.

Funding
Funding may cover up to 80% of total management costs (85% if there is a current plan for management and development of forested area), with consideration given to investments of up to €30,000. Applications will be accepted until 28 February 2020 and questions as to application procedure will be fielded at the meeting.

The money is intended to help individuals get ahead of an array of issues like creating preventive buffer zones and clearings in forest cover; maintaining buffer zones already in place by removing or pruning trees or by upturning soil near forest undergrowth; and managing trees affected by natural disasters. Funding for the recuperation of agrarian traditions will also be discussed.

31 January 2020
Department of Communication
Consell de Formentera

Consell de Formentera president Alejandra Ferrer visited the island’s irrigation pond today with Mae de la Concha, chief of the Balearic office of agriculture. Other officials at the gathering included local councillors of environment and the primary sector, Antonio J Sanz and Josep Marí, respectively, as well as the heads of the regional government’s agriculture and water resource divisions (Gabriel Torrens and Joana Garau, respectively) and the managing director of Balearic Agency for Water and Environmental Quality (Abaqua), Guillem Rosselló.

Hailing De la Concha’s visit, Ferrer insisted that “the proper working order of the irrigation pond is crucial for Formentera because it enables us to close the water cycle”. The minister, for her part, pointed out that €94k already set aside in the 2020 budgets is intended so that only the highest quality water gets to local fields.

Purification plant expansion
Attendees also spoke about projects to equip Es Ca Marí with sanitation and upgrade the waste water pump in Es Pujols. The Abaqua chief said increasing capacity at the water treatment station known as “Edar” to 3,500 cubic metres would mean waste water from Es Ca Marí could be treated as well. Decision makers say that those measures, taken together, are key to making sure infrastructure works properly, and that the water ending up in fields and at the drainage pipe is clean—essential to closing the water cycle properly.

Ferrer identified high-grade water as vital to the Formentera government’s commitment to the local farming (in the past, that support has taken the form of reactivating the co-operative of Formentera farmers, in 2010, or creating the Farmland Reserve, in 2015). “So many fields that had sat fallow have been turned over to the co-operative so they can be tilled again; it’s a way to maintain our original natural beauty and reactivate the countryside”, she concluded.

29 January 2020
Department of Communication
Consell de Formentera

Formentera’s agriculture office reports that January marks the start of a fresh crop of free courses for the island’s agricultural and livestock sector. 2020 comes with a total of nine courses—twice as many as the previous year. Enrolment is open now and can be completed at the Citizen Information Office (OAC) or online on the OVAC.

The first course on the list covers rudimentary learning for individuals who use plant health products at their places of work. Twenty-five hours of instruction will unfold from 20-25 January and give participants access to a basic phytosanitary product handlers’ permit.

And a special refresher course exists for individuals with more than ten years of on-the-job experience using plant protection products. It lasts 12 hours and takes place from 28-30 January.

The other courses are as follows:
· 27 January: Horticultural Planning (4 hours)
· 13 February: Growing fruit trees on Formentera (4)
· 18 February: Best hygiene practices in ag production (3)
· 24 February: Olive oil production (3)
· 25 February: Growing olive trees on Formentera (4)
· 29 February: Integrated management of Xylella fastidiosa (5)
· 19 March: Managing crop irrigation (4)

Highlighting a course on olive oil extraction, agriculture councillor Josep Marí drew attention to an expanding body of courses aimed at meeting the requests of local plant and livestock farmers. “There’s growing interest in training among islanders in agrarian trades”, said Marí, asserting: “Recovering our countryside is key for our administration”.

The retooled 2020 course catalogue comes with some familiar names, like integrated management of Xylella fastidiosa, and there is also a brand-new course on managing agricultural irrigation with Formentera’s still inactive irrigation pond.

14 January 2020
Department of Communication
Consell de Formentera

This Friday, 1 November, the Consell de Formentera agriculture office will begin its rollout of measures to stem the spread of trichinosis. Scheduled to run through 30 March 2020, the provisions are aimed at containing a parasite-driven sickness that humans can contract by eating raw or undercooked pork, boar, horse and sausage such as sobrassada which hasn’t undergone thermic treatment. To eliminate the parasite, pork from traditional hog slaughters must be tested. Interested islanders should contact Formentera’s office of agriculture, located at Centre Gabrielet in Sant Francesc, or by phoning 971.321.087, extension 3164. Department staff will provide material and instructions for collecting samples to ensure that food can be safely consumed without endangering human health.

29 October 2019
Department of Communication
Consell de Formentera