Catalan farmers claim to be able to cultivate hemp to stop the increase of marijuana plantations on their land

They ask the Generalitat to coordinate with the police forces and that their sowing does not imply a penalty in the subsidies of European funds

The marijuana plantations hidden among the corn fields,  «on the rise as a result of the economic crisis derived from the coronavirus», have become a  «serious problem » for Catalan farmers. This is what the union leader says Union of Farmers Santiago Caudevilla:  «If in a field of 25 or 30 hectares the illegal marijuana growers use two or three for their plants, the farmer loses around 2,000 euros per hectare of the maize crop that fails. To this, he explains, we must add the possible breakdowns of the harvesting machines caused by the metal rods stealthily installed in his plantations. According to the union, the bills can be as high as 12,000 euros.

But the conflicts do not end there, as Caudevilla recounts, since on several occasions they are faced with difficulties “to prove to the police that marijuana is not their own.”

For all this, the farmers’ union has called on the Generalitat be able to plant plants of  in the cornfields. In this way, it would be avoided that they were an attractive location for maria growers due to the risk of pollination from female plants, which contain the highest percentages of the psychoactive component, the THC. Â € œWith three or four hemp plants per hectare, which for the farmer represents a very small loss of harvesting and economic area, it would be enough, â € they explain.

Despite the fact that under certain conditions there are no legal problems to plant hemp (due to its low THC index), Unió de Pagesos claims to coordinate with the Generalitat:  «We ask that you make a record that avoids conflicts with the police forces when they make their records, ”says Caudevilla.

Likewise, the agricultural union demands from the Catalan Government the necessary coverage to avoid losing the subsidies that the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union grants farmers with single-crop farms: â € œThe sowing of hemp in corn fields could be interpreted as a double crop and become an irregularity that ends in a reduction in financial aid â €.

Uni ó de Pagesos warns that marijuana growers increasingly act with more planning and more sophisticated methods and considers that the crisis due to the effects of Covid, as happened after the 2008 one, may multiply the appearance of crops illegal next year.

Deshawn