Recently, the Portuguese Ministry of Agriculture launched the “Terra Futura” project, an initiative to boost the agricultural sector, in line with the Common Agricultural Policy (PAC) objectives of the European Union.
Designed for the decade, the 20/30 innovation agenda for agriculture intends to guide the sector’s strategy and policies, always in line with European and international priorities. In the same sense, the schedule will have in view the management of agriculture that is even more sustainable, competitive and innovative, linked to the territory, close to the consumer and that goes hand in hand with the protection of biodiversity.
The Terra Futura initiative defined five primary objectives that it intends to achieve over the next decade:
• increase the number of sustainable agricultural operations (more than half of the agricultural area in recognised sustainable production regimes)
• greater adherence to the Mediterranean diet (increase by 20%)
• increase in the number of young farmers (install 80% of new young farmers in low-density territories)
• more research and development (increase investment in research and development by 60%)
• increase the value of agri-food production (increase by 15% the value of agri-food production)
The Ministry of Agriculture intends to achieve the five goals through fifteen initiatives, divided into four categories, hoping that the plan will help mitigate the impacts of climate change and increase agricultural exports, including olive oil.
Among the ways to implement the initiative, the ministry mentions the use of by-products from the production of olive oil. The minister of agriculture in Portugal, Maria do Céu Antunes, stated that the residues derived from the production of olive oil can be transformed into biomass, a form of renewable energy used to feed the mills of olive oil or sold to the broader energy matrix.
The initiative also foresees the creation of 24 poles or “innovation networks”, which will spread throughout the country. According to the ministry, one of these centres would be exclusively dedicated to promote the Mediterranean diet in Portugal. One of these Ministry of Agriculture poles will be located in Tavira (Algarve), the city responsible for representing the transnational candidacy made in 2013, which led to the classifica9on of the Mediterranean Diet as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage.
