The Formentera Agriculture Department reiterates the restrictions on pruning plant species susceptible to the red palm weevil, namely, palm trees. Islanders are asked to limit their pruning to January and February, given these have been the coolest months in recent years.

FAD authorisation
Individuals must always have permission from the FAD before pruning palm trees, the goal being to safeguard pruned trees from infestation and to ensure proper disposal of the garden waste generated in the process. Permit requests are already being accepted, but pruning must not begin before January or after February. Individuals with FAD authorisation are allowed to take waste to the local transfer plant, free of charge. Weevil sightings should be reported to the FAD so the appropriate protocol may be implemented.

Rhynchophorus ferrugineus —the insect, also known as the red palm weevil, which attacks palm trees— reduces and even halts activity at low temperatures. Decree 4/2016 of January 29, which establishes the need for efforts within the Balearic region to eradicate the insect, restricts palm tree pruning to the chilliest months.

25 November 2020
Communications Department
Consell de Formentera

The president of the Consell de Formentera and the chairman of the Formentera Farmers’ Co-operative (Cooperativa del Camp), Alejandra Ferrer and Jaume Escandell, respectively, signed a joint action agreement to fund the Co-op’s work to re-energise the local agrarian sector and beautify rural and scenic spaces. The €78,000 included in the deal is in addition to €52,000 linked to a collaborative agreement the parties signed in May, for a grand total of €130,000 in funding in 2020.

Considering the importance of the island’s agricultural sector, President Ferrer said the Consell’s renewed support for the Co-op was particularly crucial amid the ongoing Covid-19 crisis: “It is the number one tool we have to protect local landscapes, power local production and economic diversification and care for our land as islanders have traditionally done in the past”.

Emergency orders meant an earlier signing of the joint action accord was placed on hold, and an interim agreement was reached to help the Co-op remain economically viable and fully operational. Agriculture councillor Josep Marí and Co-op director Carlos Marí were also on hand at the signing.

Joint action agreements are signed annually between the Consell de Formentera and Farmers’ Co-op to support local agriculture. Last year’s agreement carried funding to the tune of €115,000.

12 November 2020
Communications Department
Consell de Formentera

For International Day of Rural Women on Thursday 15 October, Consell de Formentera premiere Alejandra Ferrer and rural affairs chief Josep Marí visited the photo exhibit Homenatge a la dona de Formentera en el món rural (Tribute to the rural women of Formentera) on day-one of the show’s run at Centre Antoni Tur “Gabrielet” in Sant Francesc. The display will be on view 9.00am to 2.00pm, Monday to Saturday, until 31 October.

Homenatge... offers a selection of 26 photos capturing rural women of Formentera in an array of situations. Pulled from the Consell’s image and sound archive, Arxiu d’Imatge i So, the prints were taken between 1950 and present day by Pere Català i Roca, Helga Sittl, Melba Levick, Rafael Bataller i Giralt and contributors to past editions of the Beni Trutmann photo contest.

President Ferrer said the show was about spotlighting the vast range of tasks which have historically fallen to the island’s rural women — “figures whose celebration was long overdue”, asserted Ferrer. The president also underscored commonalities in the work overseen by women past and present: “What in the olden days was a woman spinning wool while rocking her baby today would be a woman working virtually while doing her best to keep her kids entertained”. “These are stories that reoccur”, Ferrer said, “and they attest to the important place of women in the past and present. But they also speak to the importance of carrying on the fight for equality between men and women”. Conseller Marí, for his part, said the display sought “to pay tribute to the rural women of Formentera and to showcase the multifunctionality of their work”.

15 October 2020
Department of Communications
Consell de Formentera

As part of a deal signed into action by Consell de Formentera president Alejandra Ferrer and Cooperativa del Camp chairman Jaume Escandell, the local farmers’ co-operative can use a storage station and grain silos belonging to the Formentera government.

Ferrer and Escandell were joined by primary sector conseller Josep Marí and the co-op’s director, Carlos Marí, on a visit of the station, which is made up of three 45m³ silos, a receiving hopper and a grain distributor.

President Ferrer highlighted the Consell’s longstanding commitment to helping the agrarian collective breathe fresh life into local agriculture. “It’s a mission that means more now than ever before, because during confinement we saw first hand how important it was to be able to meet our own needs for certain products”, she offered.

Escandell, for his part, described the structure as a potential path to self-sufficiency in terms of grain and feed needs on the island. The co-op chairman said that islanders have continued to entrust the co-op with parcels of land, and pointed out that Formentera is on track to producing enough grain to keep Formentera livestock fed.

Associated costs
The purchase and installation of the silos and hopper, not to mention of the electrical panel  powering the refrigerating unit and grain elevator, cost €146,330.96. The effort to reinvigorate Formentera’s farming sector receives 80% of its funding from the LEADER fund; the remainder is paid for by the Consell de Formentera.

30 June 2020
Department of Communications
Consell de Formentera