Spanish farmers are going to voice their discontent in Madrid, protesting the lack of state support in the wake of Storm Filomena. This storm swept across Spain in January, bringing heavy snowfall and freezing temperatures. It caused an estimated €1.4 billion of damage in the capital alone, felling trees and causing the closure of city parks for weeks.
In the wake of the storm, Spain’s government declared disaster zones in eight of Spain’s regions, a measure that brings emergency subsidies and community support. However, it is the agricultural sector that has seen the longest lasting effects of the weather phenomenon. Many outdoor crops across rural areas were destroyed in the storm, as were many greenhouses. Herds of livestock died in freezing temperatures and hundreds of hectares of olive groves and vines permanently damaged.
Farmers are complaining that authorities are too slow to deliver public aid and that they have been forgotten.
Source: theolivepress.es
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