In Spain, the Council of Ministers approved a royal decree that modifies a number of previous decrees, thus redefining the application of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) based on the proposal of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. The changes are made on the basis of the experience acquired in the first year of validity of the new CAP which came into force on 1 January 2023, and concern technical aspects. Likewise, the legislation is adapted to the innovations introduced in the modification of the Strategic Plan of the CAP (Pepac) of Spain 2023-2027, approved on 30 August of this year 2023, with clarifications and clarifications that do not alter the principles of the strategy of intervention. The aim is to facilitate a better understanding of the regulations and provide legal certainty to farmers and ranchers.

The changes to the digital notebook respond to industry requests to have a longer adaptation period to become familiar with the new tools and prepare to complete them. The entry into force of the digital agricultural notebook is therefore extended to 1 September 2024 for larger companies and to one year later, in September 2025, for small agricultural companies. Smaller agricultural companies are exempt from its use, including those with a surface area equal to or less than 5 hectares, provided that the irrigated surface area does not exceed one hectare, as well as those companies that have exclusively pastures where no fertilizer applications are foreseen.

This modification is contained in Royal Decree 1054/2022, of 27 December, which establishes and regulates the Information System of agricultural and livestock companies and agricultural production, as well as the Autonomous Register of Agricultural Companies and the Digital Notebook of Agricultural Companies. In addition to extending the deadline for the digital agricultural notebook to come into force and exempting smaller farms from its use, the changes aim to encourage its voluntary use by farmers who are already prepared for its use. All this with the aim of ensuring the correct implementation of this new tool.

As regards eco-schemes, new methods of control of practices related to grazing are envisaged for those owners who do not maintain a digital exploitation notebook. New possibilities are established for producers of asparagus and aromatic species to access aid for these eco-schemes and the wording of the crop rotation practice with improving species for farms of less than 10 hectares is modified. Likewise, the deadline for the creation of an inert cover on woody crops is extended from March 1st to April 15th, which in turn can be modified by the autonomous communities in a justified way.

For the associated aids, the possibility of self-transformation into that relating to the traditional production of raisins is established and a derogation is introduced for that established for extensive beef cattle for farms that have multiple production units in different production systems.