Self-employment and entrepreneurship
AlVelAl Association together with Enarmonía Consultancy, Colectivo Gentes and Commonland Foundation developed a program for mobilising the entrepreneurship in AlVelAl area through the 4
Returns business models. The program was sponsored by Cúllar Council and Diputación de Granada and will last six months, with several by-weekly workshops at the Exhibitions Hall of Cúllar Local Library. The objectives are:
– To create a dynamic place for sharing knowledge and contact with other people.
– To recognize the potential for rural entrepreneurship and 4 Returns businesses.
– To offer training for developing business cases and to provide information about the Economy for the Common Good.
Workshops facilitators are: Teresa Gómez from Colectivo Gentes, Loly Masegosa from Enarmonia Consultancy and Txema Ventura from Commonland Foundation. To participate please call:
958100256/0034635181979 or contact ecologia@piensaenarmonia.com
Workshop on Agroecology production: building the Almendrehesa
More than 50 people participated in the workshop in Baza. Some of the speakers were Miguel Borrás, manager at Crisolar or Juan Buil, from Motio Consultancy and the prestigious professor Luis Carlos Pinheiro from Rio Grande do Sul University (Brazil) speaking about the soil management for organic rain fed almond trees orchards. Other relevant subjects were treated such as no-tilling agriculture, plant nutrition and chemical fertilizers and some keys to maintain a soil full of life. The workshop was organized by AlVelAl, Agrogestiona, CajaMar and Caja Rural de Granada.
AlVelAl profiles, Emma Martínez Blánquez
Emma was born in Baza and lived in her grandparents’ house, Cortijo El Francés in Caniles, until she was 6. Then, her family moved to Baza, but she has always been connected to her childhood place. Since 1995 she lives in el Cortijo el Francés with her husband and their children. She studied Agronomy and she has been always concerned about rural development and international cooperation. At the age of 28, her husband and she decide to stay in Baza, one of the poorest areas in Andalucia, and they moved into their current house. She paused her professional career to raise their children and some years later she started to work helping the agrarian sector in the region from different ways. She recently started a new project together with her husband, called Agrogestiona, Agrarian Solutions, offering technical support to organic farmers. Emma truly believes on integrated production system, such as the Almendrehesa, a new holistic framework to the organic almond production. She is also part of a project in Sierra Morena to revitalize dehesas. AlVelAl is for her like “the water for our lands, it is the element that will make the Altiplano germinate in all its potential. But it is our responsibility to make it grow or not”.
State aids for productive and non-productive agricultural lands
Rural Development Program of Andalusia 2014-2020 will subsidize investments in agricultural lands in order to solve common problems such as ‘persistent hydrological deficit’, ‘degradation of soils and high level of erosion’ or, ‘loss of traditional agricultural landscape’. There will be several calls in the upcoming months, however the call 4.1 for productive lands presents a good opportunity for farmers using regenerative agriculture techniques.
Key points of the investments to improve yields or sustainability:
-Up to 70% of the total investment in regions like Los Vélez or Huéscar
-Maximum investment up to 120.000 €
-Can be used to renew machinery
-Farmers and group of farmers are accepted.
-Valid for professional farmers with 50% of their incomes coming from the land.
-Women and young farmers specially favored.
-Deadline: 31/08/2016
-Execution time: 6 months
-In case of having financial pre-finance, the subsidy will pay interests.
There will be also another call for non-productive lands focusing on avoiding the erosion, where measures like hedge implementation and hydrological corrections actions are promoted. This call will be open in June in Consejería de Agricultura website. This contribution will be up to 50.000 € and an 80% of the total. The same institution will call subsidies for ‘Transformation and Commercialization of agrarian products’ for small and medium size businesses with investment between 100.000 € and 5.000.000 €. Other calls for September are ‘business creation by young farmers’ and ‘Awareness and dissemination workshops’. For more information please visit www.juntadeandalucía.es
