PAULO CUNHA/LUSA
Fire in Frágua, Talhadas, Sever do Vouga, Aveiro.
More than half of the funds to support farmers who lost land during the fires in the central zone in September have not yet been allocated. There are those who talk about giving up the business.
The entire business of Vitor Sampaio, who lives in Albergaria-a-Velha, disappeared in minutes. The flames “it seemed like they were moving more than a car”and took the pig pen, the haystack, a ton of food, some birds and all the arable land, which is no longer available, as told by .
Just like Vitor, many Portuguese farmers in the central region had their businesses devastated by the flames, in more than 130 thousand hectares of area that burned in September. Currently, 3 months after the incident, Vitor’s land is still not cultivable, nor can it even be used as food for animals.
Calculates losses at 9 thousand euros. In his case, the support should have been close to R$6,000, the maximum amount of the funding — if it had arrived. So far, you haven’t seen any money yet. He feels like he has “an increasingly tight rope around his neck”. “I live from agriculture, I have no other means of survival”, he laments.
Another farmer, João Cunha, says he lost 15 thousand euros among trees, firewood and a granary — you will receive 4500 euros. When? Don’t know. “We are here alone, isolated, we do not receive help from anyone,” he says.
The desire to give up “knocks on the door every day”comments. “The dream I had of doing something for small farmers fell away.”
According to the Center Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR Centro), more than half of the funds are still unpaid. “So far, 3,168 have been received”, they tell Renascença.
The support, but CCDR Centro admits that of the “€7,405,587 already validated, only €3,526,300 were actually paid”. Even so, the Commission guaranteesthe regional institutes that are responsible for managing the support have already received the funds of the State.
Em Águedafor example, 45% of farmers have not yet received the money, and in Albergaria-a-Velha the situation is even more serious: there is €727,279 to be distributed. It’s almost two thirds of the total forecast (1.131.228€).
“I was told [na Câmara]which paid on November 15th. Meanwhile, it was only on December 15th. Yesterday [18 de dezembro] I called there and they told me that the money would arrive on the 29th of this month, but that if it didn’t come to call again, that the problem was at CCDR Centro [Comissão de Coordenação e Desenvolvimento Regional Centro]which they pay for, says Vitor Sampaio.
“I don’t know if it’s the chamber’s fault or the CCDR’s, I know we are injured and we didn’t get our money“, he comments.
Christmas, he says, will be different this year: “There will be no gifts. It’s just going to be some chocolate chips and nothing else, because there is no money.”
