The Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment, Nikolaos Kougialis, called for greater compensation for farmers in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, by intervening in the work of Council 28 in Brussels.
Speaking to the press after the end of the Council, the Minister said that Cyprus will support the two regulations, for land use and the reduction of greenhouse gases, but under this condition.
Specifically, he said: “In today's Council we discussed a number of issues. The most important was the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from our agricultural activity. We agree with both regulations that have been adopted to reduce greenhouse gases from both land use and other agricultural sectors. However, we believe that more incentives should be given to our farmers and compensations so that greater reductions in greenhouse gases occur ", the Minister noted.
In relation to the rest of the agenda of the meeting, the Minister described that "beyond that we had the very important issue of organic agriculture", reiterating the firm Cypriot position that the use of plant protection products in organic agriculture can not be allowed, recalling the risk of losing confidence in the relevant market.
"You know very well the position of Cyprus and our sensitivities regarding the presence of plant protection substances in organic products", said the Minister. "In no case will Cyprus consent to this issue and we will take initiatives to come up with a regulation that will satisfy us, we have discussed them in the past, we have said that if the use of plant protection substances is allowed, then trust will be lost. market and this whole market of organic products will be destroyed will not be the same as today ".
Finally, referring to the conclusions on the food chain, the Minister said that "we welcome the fact that these conclusions will include the position of Cyprus to create crisis prevention at the regional level."
Source: KYPE