The agricultural organization COAG Almería has demanded direct aid and exceptional measures due to the severe damage caused by hail in the Los Vélez region. The storm, which occurred last Sunday, June 28th, has affected over 1,200 hectares, with particular impact in the municipalities of Vélez Blanco and María.
Representatives from COAG Almería, led by the Secretary of Organization, Antonio Moreno, visited the affected farms to assess the extent of the damage. Moreno emphasized the importance of farmers submitting damage reports to COAG offices to request the necessary aid. "It is important to complete these reports as they form the basis for claiming the direct aid and extraordinary measures that the area urgently needs now," he explained.
The storm delivered intense rainfall, with accumulations exceeding 50 liters per square meter in some areas. The damage extends beyond crops to rural roads, access routes to farms, terraces, pastures, and agricultural infrastructure. The situation has been described as a "historic storm" due to the affected area's size and the cumulative impact on farms already weakened by previous storms.
Cereal crops, in the midst of their harvest campaign, have suffered devastating consequences, with stalks flattened and crops destroyed. Almond trees, which had partially recovered from a strong hailstorm in March, have again been hit, jeopardizing this year's production. In addition to crop losses, intense rainfall has caused landslides, gullies, fertile soil erosion, and structural damage to rural infrastructure, hindering future productivity and access.
This event highlights the increasing vulnerability of agriculture to more extreme, intense, and frequent weather phenomena, exacerbated by climate change. COAG calls for an immediate response from administrations, warning that many family farms could face disappearance if a swift and proportionate response to the scale of the damage is not provided.
