Dozens of citizens demonstrated this Friday in support of the Center for Agrarian Experimentation (CEAT), so that this structure continues "to fulfill the objective for which it was built 95 years ago, which is to support and train future and current farmers" .
This protest, which consisted of a march between the Câmara de Tavira and the CEAT, follows on from the presentation of a plan for this pole of the Algarve Regional Directorate of Agriculture and Fisheries, with which the Citizens' Movement for the Tavira Agrarian Experimentation Center (CEAT) and Urban Gardens of Tavira does not agree.
For the protesters, the plan forgets the farmers, transforming the space into an Innovation Hub.
Citizens demanded that "the Sotavento Delegation of the Algarve Regional Directorate of Agriculture and Fisheries support and serve farmers, the guarantors of food security and the production of products that underpin the values and principles of the proclaimed Mediterranean Diet and sustainable nutrition."
The protesters' position is contained in a manifesto that was delivered to the CEAT (see below).
Citizens' Movement Manifesto by the Tavira Agrarian Experimentation Center (CEAT) and Tavira Urban Gardens:
«Algarve farmers demand respect:
For the land they cultivate, long before all the land managers were installed;
For the immense effort that represents for generations and generations of farmers the construction of the landscape that these same representatives of the State now sell to geriatric tourism as the idyllic “natural” setting.
Due to its history and traditions that the “appointed defenders” of the public interest insist on ignoring, erecting the “modernity” of the new crops as the “blessing” that befell our fields, now occupied by multinationals.
The paradigmatic case of the Tavira Agricultural Experimentation Center (CEAT).
In general, the so-called Agrarian Stations or Agrarian Experimentation Centers were created to support and modernize Portuguese agriculture, namely through experimental studies that allowed the evaluation and selection of practices, production techniques that, due to their special relevance, were, subsequently transmitted to farmers. At the same time, they also allowed for the preservation and improvement of the most important genetic varieties for each region and their dissemination to interested agricultural producers. It was a bet on the country's agricultural capacity, its diversity and the resilience of the rural world.
It is in this context that the Center for Agrarian Experimentation (CEAT) in Tavira appears.
The abandonment of this vision, prioritizing the tourist industry in which the countryside is just landscape, led these "stations" and "experimentation centers" to a process of programmed decay through the systematic cut of funds, non-renewal of human resources and closure of delegations locations. In the fringe of cities, in the long term, they became the favorite target of real estate speculators. Despite occupying mostly state private property areas, they maintain the status of public areas, owned by public institutions serving the public interest, and their successive "administrators" must promote a management that is guided by the achievement of the objectives for which they were created. They are public spaces that serve the public interest and must be kept that way.
Despite containing one of the most important collections of fruit trees in the Algarve and even some of national importance, since at least 2013, the Tavira Agricultural Experimentation Center (CEAT) has been abandoned as a result of a policy of programmed disinvestment, a trend that we've never seen any “manager” reverse.
Despite the effort that the Citizens' Movement for CEAT has been developing, since 2019, to try to remove CEAT from this slow death, namely through public campaigns, video collection of life stories for future memory of experiences in this space, meetings techniques with DRAPALG employees in which concrete proposals for intervention were presented, partnerships with In Loco and CM Tavira for the implementation of community gardens for the inhabitants of neighborhoods in the municipality of Tavira, creating expectations of an effective appreciation of the space at the service of farmers, the end result is a drift of responsible entities that everything points to have made this Center hostage to geriatric tourism and entertainment.
Entities completely alien to the rural world, such as the ABC – Biomedical Center are now installed in buildings formerly intended for training, the remaining buildings are distributed by the Ciência Viva Center and so on. Let it be clear. We are not against the existence of these structures. We recognize the role you can play in the community. What we dispute is that they install themselves in the space dedicated to farmers and that they are ignored.
In the Algarve, and according to the publication of the presentation of “Terra Futura” in which the public consultation sessions that took place in the country are marked, no consultation session was held within the scope of the Innovation Agenda for Agriculture and the respective Poles of Innovation. Could it be that, in the Algarve, agriculture has no legs to innovate? Is it already at such an advanced level that it wasn't even worth doing a session here? Or is it not interesting to hear the increasing number of voices disagreeing with what is happening in the region?
The revitalization model assumed in the pre-configuration of the new Innovation Pole in Tavira is not at all the model intended by the citizens because in practice it does not give any priority to the training and instruction of farmers.
Let us recall the first strategic visions and concrete proposals presented by the Movement in mid-May 2020:
Given the current environmental, social and economic situation, we defend that the CEAT must be preserved and revitalized in order to fulfill the mission for which it was created, adapting to contemporary challenges.
Research, experimentation and dissemination of traditional plant varieties and appropriate agricultural practices must be a priority to face climate change, the problem of water scarcity, desertification, the imbalances in ecosystems created by the conventional agrochemical industry and by the current action of human beings. human, so a good performance of CEA Tavira in this context is vital.
It is emphasized that the country's survival and sovereignty increasingly depend on a serious commitment to the rural world, in its diversity and agricultural capacity, based on practices that guarantee the sustainability of this system, research and training constituting the basic pillars of these objectives;
Reaffirming the national importance and the specifically regional scope of the genetic heritage of the various collections of fruit trees that CEA Tavira houses, constituting an invaluable capital for the country and especially for the Algarve, its preservation and dynamism is a responsibility that must be shared between the central government and all institutions in the Algarve region.
We understand that only through a holistic, comprehensive and complementary vision of this space can the Center's full potential be realized, so since the beginning of this process we have demonstrated our commitment and willingness to collaborate in all actions that share these objectives.
Work program proposed by the Movement's initiative in June 2020, drawn up in official meetings with DRAP technicians:
– Carrying out a survey of CEAT's space, resources, activities and main constraints;
– Preparation of a list of possible partners and patrons who may be involved in the revitalization of CEAT;
– Establishment of a strategy to raise awareness and involve these institutions and populations in general to the importance of CEAT at regional and national level and the genetic heritage that it integrates, through direct approaches (meetings, written communication, meetings, events) and campaigns in the media;
– Construction of a global project, for the existing agricultural and building area, of phased implementation in the short, medium and long term, integrating strategic partners, including the preparation of applications for funding under the next Financial Support Framework (QCA), of the PRP and other national and European funds.
Great short-term goals for CEA Tavira:
a) Research, experimentation and agrarian training, namely in the areas of regenerative, syntropic agriculture, permaculture and ecological water management:
b) Environmental education and tourism:
c) Warehouse for small regional producers:
– Cold storage infrastructure, allowing the grouping to increase the scale of production and thus boosting exports;
– Supply of organic vegetables to entities in the municipality, such as schools and homes;
– Organization of fairs/markets
– Creation of an area for community gardens and orchards:
– Volunteer programs;
– Urban composting;
– Physical maintenance circuit;
– Organization of debates.
d) It was also proposed to carry out small specific actions, in order to streamline and publicize the CEAT from now on and strengthen ties with the region's community.
– Table Set (picnic);
– Citizen support for agricultural activities that CEA Tavira needs;
– Vegetable garden and/or community canteen;
– Periodic Biological Market, in order to support small regional producers and artisans;
– Regular schedule of lectures on the theme of environment and ecological agriculture.
(...).
As can be seen, this movement of Citizens has been tireless since the first moment it was formed and defined its first objectives, initially to stop crossing a road, then to motivate the implementation of community gardens that are now installed in the locality. through a broad partnership constituted for that purpose, and this movement will not stop until the CEAT- Center for Agrarian Experimentation of Tavira is effectively revitalized and agriculture, as well as the economic and environmental recovery and resilience of the communities, is rightly leveraged in this region".
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