25 de November de 2025
Dinamización rural
Resiliencia y competitividad
Biodiversidad y paisaje
The initiative prioritizes women and young people to promote generational change
- The initiative prioritizes women and young people to promote generational change
- The program is part of the "Law on Agricultural Spaces of Catalonia" and seeks to recover abandoned agricultural land
The Department of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food of the Government of Catalonia has taken a decisive step towards recovering agricultural activity lost in recent decades with the launch of its first public call for applications for access to unused agricultural land. This mechanism was established by the 2019 "Law on Agricultural Spaces ," but until now it has not been implemented on such a broad scale.
The proposal makes available 43 plots of land distributed across the four provinces of the Autonomous Community, obtained through both voluntary transfers from landowners and from the Generalitat's assets. The measure prioritizes the inclusion of women and young people as a key strategy to combat land abandonment, the aging of the agricultural sector, and rural depopulation.
A recovery instrument
The creation of the "Registry of Disused Agricultural and Livestock Plots " is the central focus of this initiative. All the properties offered are registered in this registry, which identifies and assesses abandoned land in order to reactivate it through regulated leases.
According to figures from the Generalitat and the Statistical Institute of Catalonia (IDESCAT) , the territorial context explains the urgency of this measure:
Catalonia has 3.2 million hectares, with 25.7% crops and 64% forest area.
In the last 20 years, around 100,000 hectares of crops have been abandoned , a drop of 10.6%.
The forest area has increased between 100,000 and 200,000 hectares.
Catalonia has only 0.10 hectares of cultivable land per inhabitant, well below the Spanish and European average.
This program aims to curb this trend and restore productivity to currently underutilized farms.
Plots and allocation system
The call opens access to 43 plots with this distribution:
18 in Lleida.
9 in Barcelona.
9 in Tarragona.
7 in Girona.
Interested parties can choose the plot they consider suitable, and the allocation will be resolved according to a scoring system that values aspects such as agricultural professionalism, previous experience, the farming project and, explicitly, the status of being a young or female applicant.
The properties offered give a face to the social objective of the call: that no land should be left unused when it can recover its productive and environmental value.
Who can apply for these lands?
The call for applications presents a A broad-based profile aimed at encouraging new entrants into the sector. The following may apply:
Holders of Priority Agricultural Holdings (EAP).
Professional farmers (AP).
Individuals who wish to start in agricultural activity.
Entities that work with people with disabilities or at risk of exclusion .
Natural or legal persons directly cultivating .
Furthermore, a direct priority is given to women and young people, two key groups to ensure the continuity of the agricultural sector in Catalonia.
Procedure, deadlines and duration of leases
The process is carried out entirely online through the Department of Agriculture 's website and includes:
Application deadline : 2 months.
Resolution : maximum 6 months from the closing of applications.
Minimum lease term : 7 years, through a private contract regulated by the Catalan Civil Code.
Reference price : set based on the condition of the plot, its agronomic conditions and average regional prices.
The Department plans to publish at least one call for applications per year, progressively expanding the number of available plots through new voluntary registrations and future official declarations of disuse.
Recover to reactivate
The first public call for applications for access to unused agricultural land marks a milestone in the management of Catalan agricultural territory. With 43 properties open to new projects, priority given to women and young people, and a transparent process, the Catalan government is launching a strategic tool to curb rural depopulation, promote new production models, and strengthen generational renewal.