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Ahead of regional elections, the Spanish National Park of Doñana is at the epicentre of a clash between local fruit producers, environmentalists, and authorities after a controversial proposal to regularise illegal irrigation systems in the midst of a severe drought.

Germany is pushing for the European Union to include the civilian nuclear sector in the bloc's new sanctions package against Russia, the Economy Ministry said on Monday (17 April).

Die Versuche der EU am Montag, das Verbot der Einfuhr ukrainischen Getreides nach Polen, Ungarn und später in die Slowakei zu zu unterbinden, stießen auf taube Ohren und drohen zu eskalieren, da Bulgarien ein ähnliches Verbot erwägt.

In today's edition of the Capitals, find out more about the significant increase in Finnish exports to the US, French President Emmanuel Macron wanting to move forward despite many still proposing the new pension law, and so much more.

Die EU-Kommission hat angekündigt, dass sie ein weiteres Unterstützungspaket für die Landwirte in der EU erwägt, die von einem Zustrom ukrainischer Agrarprodukte betroffen sind. Zuvor hatten Polen, Ungarn und die Slowakei ukrainisches Getreide verboten.

Spanien zeige bereits Führungsstärke bei komplexen Themen wie Wirtschaftsaufschwung und Energie zu einer Zeit, in der Führungsstärke in der EU-Ratspräsidentschaft "so notwendig" sei, sagte Außenminister José Manuel Albares am Montag in Madrid.

La Suède a lancé lundi 17 avril Aurora 23, son plus grand exercice militaire depuis 30 ans, qui vise à simuler une attaque d’une puissance étrangère, alors qu’elle devrait bientôt rejoindre l’alliance de l’OTAN.

Die französische Regierung will das Arbeitnehmer-Arbeitgeber-Verhältnis reformieren, die Grundsicherung ausbauen und öffentliche Dienstleistungen verbessern. Damit will Macron, der seine umstrittene Rentenreform weiter verteidigt, den Protesten Einhalt gebieten.

Employees at Microelectronica, a manufacturer and retailer of hardware and software tools, had their employees gradually work four days a week over the past eight months, increasing productivity by about 30%. In Serbia, employees work about 43 hours a week,...

After being wrong-footed by a massive wildfire last year, Slovenia has decided to build up dedicated aerial firefighting capabilities, for which it has purchased four water bombers, two of which will be delivered before wildfire season starts. Under a €23...

Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić said on Monday he would not go to a Council of Europe event marking 20 years of Serbia’s membership if the international human rights organisation starts a procedure to accept Kosovo as its newest member. Speaking...

Croatia plans to spend €8.5 billion on its national cancer strategy until 2025 to reduce a cancer-related death rate public health officials claim is “among the highest in Europe”. The plan was presented by the head of Croatia’s public health...

Huszonöt évi fegyházbüntetésre ítélte a moszkvai városi bíróság ifjabb Vlagyimir Kara-Murza ellenzéki politikust hazaárulás és az orosz hadseregről szóló hamis állítások terjesztése címén.

A tárgyalást titkosnak minősítették, és zárt ajtók mögött tartották meg. Az ítélet súlyossága megegyezik az ügyész kérelmével. Az ítélet nem jogerős, Vagyim Prohorov, Kara-Murza ügyvédje közölte, hogy fellebbezést fognak benyújtani ellene.

A nyomozás az orosz hírügynökségek által idézett hivatalos iratok szerint megállapította, hogy a politikus az egyesült államokbeli Arizona állam képviselőházában „politikai gyűlöletből” fakadóan 2022 márciusában „szándékosan hamis információkat hangoztatott arról, hogy az orosz fegyveres erők Ukrajnában lakóövezeteket, szülőotthonokat, kórházakat és iskolákat bombáznak”. Az elítélt ellen egy második büntetőeljárás is indult, „nemkívánatosnak nyilvánított külföldi vagy nemzetközi nem kormányzati szervezetnek való munkavégzés” címén. A harmadik és legsúlyosabb vád az orosz büntető törvénykönyv 275. cikke szerinti „hazaárulás” vádja volt, amelyért húsz évig terjedő szabadságvesztés szabható ki.

Kara-Murzát a NATO-közgyűlésen, az oslói Helsinki Bizottságban és az Egyesült Államokban elmondott beszédei alapján vádolták meg hazaárulással. A három ügyet összevonták, és az orosz Nyomozó Bizottság (SZK) hatáskörébe rendelték. Vagyim Prohorov a RIA Novosztyi hírügynökségnek azt mondta, ez az első alkalom, hogy az SZK hazaárulás ügyében járt el, az ilyen esetek eddig az orosz Szövetségi Biztonsági Szolgálat (FSZB) hatáskörébe tartoztak.

Az elítélt vétlennek vallotta magát az ellene felhozott vádpontokban, és a sztálini idők koncepciós pereihez hasonlította az ellene lefolytatott eljárást. Az utolsó szó jogán a múlt héten elmondott beszédében azt hangoztatta, büszke arra, hogy szembeszállt Putyin diktatúrájával és azon döntésével, hogy megtámadja Ukrajnát.

„Oroszország szabad lesz!” – jelentette ki az ítélethirdetés után helyszíni hírügynökségi jelentések szerint.

A 41 éves ifjabb Vlagyimir Kara-Murza orosz-brit kettős állampolgár, az orosz ellenzéki mozgalom tagja rendszeres vendége volt a Kreml-ellenes fórumoknak Európában és az Egyesült Államokban. Együttműködött a 2015-ben meggyilkolt Borisz Nyemcov orosz ellenzéki politikussal, és saját műsora volt a független hangvételű Eho Moszkvi rádióban. Az elítélt demokrata az idősebb Vlagyimir Kara-Murza (1959-2019) neves újságíró és ellenzéki aktivista fia. Támogatói szerint 2015-ben és 2017-ben mérgezési kísérletet élt túl, amelyek miatt a Kremlt tette felelőssé.

 

The post Kara-Murzát 25 évi szabadságvesztésre ítélték appeared first on .

Hungary is lobbying to get Belarusian pellets back on the EU market, as they are currently on the EU sanctions list, Portfolio reports, based on the Belarusian news portal Reform.by. According to the report, the Belarusian government’s ambassador to Hungary gave an...

Slovakia temporarily banned the imports of Ukrainian grain and other food products after an increased amount of pesticide not authorised in the EU was found in Ukrainian wheat imports, acting Agriculture Minister Samuel Vlčan announced on Monday. The pesticide, banned...

Martín Pineda (R) is in charge of a four-hectare community farm on the outskirts of San José Villanueva, in southern El Salvador. He says no government has focused on food sovereignty in the past 30 years. He and other farmers, like his co-worker Miguel Ángel García (L), complain that they lack technical support to produce food efficiently. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala/IPS

By Edgardo Ayala
SAN JOSÉ VILLANUEVA, El Salvador, Apr 18 2023 (IPS)

Sitting under the shade of a tree, Salvadoran farmer Martín Pineda looked desperate, and perhaps angry, as he said that governments of different stripes have come and gone in El Salvador while agriculture remains in the dumps.

“I think this shows contempt for farmers,” Pineda told IPS, frowning.

Pineda is in charge of a four-hectare community farm worked by 12 families near San José Villanueva, in the department of La Libertad in the south of El Salvador.

Pineda’s hopelessness turned into concern when he commented on the risks that the agricultural sector faces from climatic phenomena that hit crops almost every year.“It is sad that we have to import beans, when we have the capacity to produce them, if we just had government support.” -- Martín Pineda

This risk increases when considering reports that the El Niño Southern Oscillation (Enso) climate phenomenon is expected to appear in 2023, which would mean new droughts and loss of crops.

“Last year we lost a good part of the bean crop,” said Pineda, 70. He explained that of the four hectares they plant they lost 2.7 hectares, and the same thing happened with the corn.

In October 2022, Tropical Storm Julia devastated 8,000 hectares of corn and bean crops in the country, leading to losses of around 17 million dollars.

The backdrop is the rise in the cost of inputs for production, due to international factors, such as Russia’s war with Ukraine. In addition, in El Salvador there have been unjustified price increases because just three companies monopolize the import market for the inputs required by farmers, adding to their difficulties.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned in a report published in 2023 that in 2020, factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climatic phenomena, and structural aspects like poverty and violence, exposed the Salvadoran population to even greater risks.

The FAO report said that since 36 percent of vulnerable Salvadorans depend on agriculture for a living, “it is essential to provide affected households with the necessary means to rehabilitate their productive assets and resume production activities.”

However, this course is not being followed in the agricultural sector.

According to official figures, in this small Central American country of 6.7 million people, 22.8 percent of households are living in poverty, a proportion that rises to 24.8 percent in rural areas, of which 5.2 percent are in extreme poverty and 19.6 percent in relative poverty.

 

Given the difficulties in growing crops under the current conditions, the 12 families who collectively work a farm in the surroundings of San José Villanueva, in southern El Salvador, have turned to the production of chickens and eggs. They presently have 1,400 laying hens. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala/IPS

 

Agriculture is not recovering

El Salvador has failed to jumpstart its agricultural sector for at least three decades. It is one of the most deficient nations in several categories of food, such as vegetables.

It is estimated that the production of vegetables in El Salvador barely covers 10 percent of domestic demand, while the remaining 90 percent are imported from neighboring countries, such as Guatemala.

But what is most worrying is that the country is also deficient in Central American staples such as corn and beans, although the shortfall occurs especially when climatic events hit hard, whether excess or lack of rain.

When that happens, El Salvador must import beans from neighboring countries, such as Nicaragua, although if those nations face drops in production, this country must look for them elsewhere and at higher prices.

For example, in 2015 El Salvador had to import around 1.5 million kg of beans from Ethiopia.

“It is sad that we have to import beans, when we have the capacity to produce them, if we just had government support,” Pineda complained.

He said that over the last 30 years, neither left-wing nor right-wing governments have had the political will to provide agriculture with decisive support, and that it appears that the focus is on promoting imports.

“There is no well-defined government policy,” said Pineda. “For example, we have the land, but we do not have the inputs, or ongoing technical advice.”

He was talking about the lack of a clear policy in the last 30 years, including the four governments, between 1989 and 2009, of the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA), the two administrations of the ex-guerrilla Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), from 2009 to 2019, and the almost four years of the administration of Nayib Bukele, in office since June 2019.

“This government has followed the same pattern, of not showing strong support,” he argued.

To illustrate, the farmer pointed to the need for an irrigation system on the San José Villanueva farm, which would not be difficult to achieve, since there is a river nearby with sufficient flow.

But when the farm has requested technical support for an irrigation system, it has consistently received the same negative response from governments.

“We have no machinery here, no irrigation system, although we have a river nearby,” said Pineda. “We have two wells, but at this time of year they dry up, and we have to buy water.”

“How can we produce food efficiently in these conditions?” he asked.

 

A group of young people who created the Micelio Suburbano organization are promoting agroecological gardens in residential areas of San Salvador, like this one in the Zacamil neighborhood on the north side of the Salvadoran capital. The aim is to encourage families in the area to grow some of the food they need in their daily diet. CREDIT: Micelio Suburbano

 

Bukele follows the same blueprint

Academics agree that the collapse of the agricultural sector was influenced by the 1980-1992 civil war, which left some 75,000 dead and 8,000 disappeared.

But that doesn’t explain everything.

Neighboring countries, such as Guatemala and Nicaragua, also suffered civil wars, and are more self-sufficient in food production.

When the ARENA neoliberal party took power in El Salvador in 1989, the agriculture sector was abandoned by policy-makers.

This was accentuated in the second ARENA administration (1994-1999), when the growth of the textile maquilas or export assembly plants was bolstered as a source of employment, and the government focused even less on development in the countryside.

Decades later, the country still hasn’t found a clear direction for getting agriculture on track, Luis Treminio, president of the Salvadoran Chamber of Small and Medium Agricultural Producers, told IPS.
.
The chamber is made up of 15 agricultural organizations and in total brings together some 15,000 farmers. An estimated 400,000 people in the country are dedicated to agriculture.

Treminio said that a plan promoted by the Bukele government to reactivate the agricultural sector, announced with great fanfare in June 2021, did not come to fruition because the 1.2 billion dollars in funding needed was not found in the international financial market.

This was due to a lack of confidence on the part of the multilateral lenders, he added.

Treminio said the government lacks vision and priorities, since national income is allocated to unfeasible projects, such as the millions of dollars spent to buy bitcoins, which have been legal tender in El Salvador since September 2021.

“The problem is that the government does not prioritize food sovereignty,” he said, but instead focuses on food security – that is, providing food regardless of whether the country produces it or not, and much of which is actually imported.

One illustration of the government’s chaotic agricultural policy is the fact
that there have already been four ministers of agriculture, in less than four years of government.

Treminio said El Salvador’s farmers are not opposed to imports, but argued that they must complement what the country does not produce.

“We are not against imports, but they have to be regulated,” he added.

He said that what often happens is that, under the justification of shortages of grains or other products, more is imported than what is actually needed to cover national demand, driving prices way down for local farmers.

“For example, in dairy there is a 40 percent deficit in consumption, and 120 percent imports are authorized,” he said.

 

Yellow plum tomatoes are part of the harvest of the Micelio Suburbano collective, which takes advantage of green spaces in urban areas in the north of San Salvador to plant gardens and encourage families to start growing some of their food. CREDIT: Micelio Suburbano

 

Growing food in the city

Given the scarcity and high costs of food, small initiatives have begun to emerge to promote gardens, even in urban areas, taking advantage of all available spaces.

One of these efforts, which are new in the country, is fostered by Micelio Suburbano, a group made up of a dozen young people and adolescents who are trying to show that part of the food consumption can be met by growing vegetables and fruit in open spaces in urban areas.

“It’s kind of a utopia to think that in our homes we can grow our own crops of aromatic herbs, tomatoes, etc.,” Nuria Mejía, an architect by profession with a passion for spreading the idea of urban agriculture, told IPS.

The group set up its first garden in 2022 in a working-class area of apartment buildings known as Zacamil, on the north side of San Salvador.

In small spaces that were once green areas in the apartment complex, they have planted three gardens, where they grow on a small scale tomatoes, radishes, eggplant and various kinds of aromatic herbs.

The aim is for people to see what can be achieved and to get involved.

“People see the radishes we are growing and ask us for seeds,” Mejía said.

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