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The Spanish government is preparing to transfer around 17,000 state-owned rural properties to young farmers, women and new agricultural professionals in a bid to tackle the country's ageing farming population and rural depopulation crisis.

 

President Pedro Sánchez announced the scheme at a conference on generational renewal in agriculture in Madrid this week. He said the government would analyse the suitability of the properties and make them available to those who "can turn them into winning projects."

 

"We are going to analyse their suitability and, if appropriate, make them available," President Sánchez stated, comparing the initiative to the government's housing policy and previous transfers of state-owned land, a scheme designed to give younger buyers a leg up onto the property market.

 

The properties will be promoted through a new technological platform called 'Tierra Joven' (Young Land), which the Ministry of Agriculture will launch to provide information about the agricultural land market. Mr Sánchez promised the tool would be up and running in the first months of this year through a royal decree, before the summer.

 

The President explained that the platform aims to improve market transparency with updated data and information on financing, regulations and taxation. Once the future Family Farming Law is approved, the platform will be expanded to include an information and land transfer office similar to those operating in France, Germany and Poland.

 

He added that the government "will open a dialogue with the autonomous communities and the sector regarding the model for accessing land."

 

The announcement comes as Spain grapples with a rapidly greying agricultural workforce. More than 40% of farm owners are now over 65, a problem shared with other European countries.

 

"We have a lot at stake in terms of the survival of the regions hit by depopulation," Mr Sánchez said.

 

Generational renewal is the greatest challenge facing the agri-food sector in Spain and the broader European Union, but financing and access to land are still among the biggest obstacles young people face when trying to enter farming and livestock raising.

 

Here in Spain, the ministry has already published a comprehensive guide to help new generations break into the sector and launched several initiatives including the Cultiva Programme, dubbed the "agricultural Erasmus", as well as subsidised loans and guarantees from the State-owned Agricultural Guarantee Corporation (SAECA).

 

At this stage, details about whether people will pay for the land itself have not yet been finalised or clearly outlined. In similar government land access programmes elsewhere, authorities often use leases, long-term use arrangements or subsidised purchase options, not necessarily free transfers, but Spain’s draft hasn’t mentioned exact terms yet.

 

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