Earlier today in the plenary hall of the Formentera Council (CiF), administration president Jaume Ferrer met with Vicenç Vidal, regional environment minister of the Govern Balear and president of Institut Balear de la Natura (IBANAT), to sign off on an agreement giving Formentera use rights over a stretch of public land in Can Marroig. Ownership of the parcel is held by IBANAT. Also present at the signing were CiF councillor of rural affairs Bartomeu Escandell and IBANAT chair Ramón Villalonga.

The goal of the five-year renewable agreement is to give the land an agricultural use. President Ferrer voiced his hope that stewardship of the parcel go to the Formentera Farmers' Co-operative. The president said control of the 12-hectare plot had for some time been the object of petitions by the Formentera Council. The land will be worked and maintained using environmentally-friendly methods.

Govern Balear minister Vidal called the renewed agricultural use of the land a milestone and underscored the importance of conserving Formentera's biodiversity. He celebrated it as “the first case we've had of public land being given this kind of productive use.” Care of the parcel will be incorporated into the Farmland Reserve project of the Formentera Farmers' Co-operative. The land-use revival project was launched in March 2015 and today includes a register of 140 hectares. Through its support of the Farmers' Co-op and initiatives like the Farmland Reserve, the Council invests in the renewal of Formentera's primary sector and protecting the island's natural beauty.

Kids between three and twelve, this is for you. The Formentera Council, by way of the Office of Agriculture, has announced the launch of an introductory course in farming for children, the first of its kind. Signups will remain open until May 16 or until the course reaches its 30-child limit and will take place in person at the Citizen's Information Office (OAC) and online across the office's virtual platform. So explained the CiF's councillor of rural affairs, Bartomeu Escandell, in a press conference earlier today. Happy to see the project take flight, Escandell called the course a reflection of “the administration's determination to invest in our children's agricultural connection at a very young age”. According to the councillor, farming is important because it is part of Formentera's traditional past, “but also because it's part of a healthy lifestyle”.

After the May 16 deadline, the agriculture office will call families to confirm enrolment. The course itself will start the third or fourth week of May. It will run six weeks with one two-hour session per week. Participants of the workshop-style course will be divided into three different groups. One group will meet Tuesdays 5.30-7.30pm, another on Fridays at the same time and a third group will meet on Saturday mornings, 10.00am to 12 noon. There is a ten-child limit per group and children will be assigned on a first-come first-served basis and according to the preference stated at enrolment. The classes are free and will be held in the play area near the sa Tanca Vella chapel in Sant Francesc. Remember to bring comfortable clothes and appropriate shoes.

From February and through the end of March, the Formentera farmers' cooperative, la Cooperativa del Camp, is overseeing restorative pruning on fig trees located on land donated as part of the group's farmland reserve project, Cens de Terres. The goal, says Carlos Marí, head of the cooperative, is to “restore these trees —a quintessential figure of local tradition— to their optimal state and market their fruit this summer”.

Over the last two months Cooperativa members have pruned or propped up the limbs of 89 trees. According to Marí, that number is expected to reach 129 by the time cooperative members finish, “allowing the farmers' cooperative to carry out its first commercial fig harvest”.

As councillor of rural affairs Bartomeu Escandell noted, such pruning is just one part of the rural restoration work established by the joint action partnership between the Formentera Council and the farmers' cooperative. At present more than 140 hectares have been entrusted to the Cooperativa for use in its farmland reserve programme. Said Marí, “many of our donated parcels had been left derelict for many years, so the restorative work will likely be lengthy”.

This morning in the plenary hall of the Formentera Council, councillor of rural affairs Bartomeu Escandell met with Mateu Ginard, the Govern Balear's director general of agriculture and livestock, as well as the heads of three different local groups – the irrigation organisation of Formentera, the local assocation of livestock farmers and the Formentera farmers' cooperative.

Palma's head of agriculture and livestock described the project currently overseen by his department and valued at €294,000 to “get Formentera's effluent water-fed irrigation pond up and running”. Ginard reported that the project, entrusted to the Tragsa company, is expected to be completed by next summer, at which time, “five years after construction, the pond will finally be operational”.

Help for local irrigators

Councillor Escandell announced “during the first two years, the Formentera Council will cover the €30 fixed monthly fee required for use of each water main”. Acknowledging what he called a «lack of culture of irrigation” among Formentera farmers, Escandell proclaimed, “we want to do everything we can to promote use of the irrigation pond and help out our local community of irrigators”.

Agriculture, Escandell told Ginard, has been a top priority for the Formentera administration, pointing to the support given to the Formentera farmers' cooperative (la Cooperativa del Camp) and the creation of an industrial space for that group earlier in the year. “Our goal is to support action to improve the natural beauty of our surroundings and strengthen our agricultural and livestock sectors”.

To the local representatives of these groups, Ginard highlighted the grant money the Govern plans to make available to mitigate the effects of this year's dry season. “For one thing, there will be feed subsidies of €9.20 per animal”, he reported. Moreover, and of particular interest to associations, he said, are credits of between €20,000 and €100,000 at near-zero percent interest rates that the Govern also plans to provide. He also spoke about the possibility of additional funding for certified seed.