Herdade do Couto da Várzea, in Idanha-a-Nova, one of the country’s main agricultural references, was the venue chosen to mark European Organic Farming Day, with a meeting that brought together hundreds of participants from all over the country.
The meeting was attended by government representatives, organic associations and producers, educational, development and research institutions, and the Portuguese Bio-Regions, organized by the Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development, the Regional Directorate for Agriculture and Fisheries of the Centre, AGROBIO – the Portuguese Organic Farming Association – and the Idanha-a-Nova Town Council.
In a statement, the local authority said that during the initiative there were many congratulations to Idanha for its recent award as Europe’s Best Bio-Region. In his speech, the Secretary of State for Agriculture, Gonçalo Rodrigues, praised Idanha for being “the first Bio-Region in the country and, in this way, paving the way for us to try to do even more, as a country, in what has been the work of farmers in the search for sustainability, in the search for a path towards increasingly organic agriculture, in the defense of resources and the territory and in the aim of serving the Portuguese and the world, more and more, with quality food products”.
For his part, the Mayor of Idanha-a-Nova, Armindo Jacinto, highlighted the work that has been carried out in all areas of society, in a strategy that cuts across the entire community of Idanha-a-Nova: from education, with the creation of bio-canteens and organic teaching gardens; to attracting investment, knowledge and research centers or the construction of infrastructures and implementation of projects to support producers and processors in the municipality.
The mayor said that there are 81 organic producers and almost 18,000 hectares in organic production, with Idanha being the largest area in the country. Armindo Jacinto praised the entrepreneurs who adopt “good agricultural, processing and service practices that are friendly to our health and the planet” and, for this reason, he argues that “Europe must set an example and pay for these ecosystem services and penalize those who don’t do it well”.
