Canary Islands

The agricultural sector in the archipelago is developed on fertile soils that facilitate deep-rooted crops such as bananas, grapes, tomatoes, oranges, potatoes and avocados. However, production techniques are faced with a shortage of water resources and a rugged topography that hinders their expansion, allowing the start-up of farms in a small proportion of the total territory. On the other hand, the livestock sector is mainly characterized by well-adapted goat farms, followed by pig and sheep farms.

In this way, agriculture and livestock farming have a leading role in the socio-economic framework from the point of view of the structuring of the territory, landscape preservation and environmental protection ( Canarian Confederation of Businessmen (2022). Annual report on the Canarian economy, 185 ), but with little weight in the GDP of the Archipelago (1.5%) and faces economic and productive tensions associated with high production and marketing costs, BREXIT and foreign competition.

According to data collected in the Canary Islands Industrial Development Strategy 2022-2027 of the Technological and Competitive Surveillance Platform (VTCAN) of the Canary Islands Technological Institute ( ITC ), the agri-food sector is represented by 230 companies at the end of 2020. This group of companies is progressively adjusting to the improvement in competitiveness, sustainability, traceability and food safety provided for in the Agro-Food PERTE and the Canary Islands Food Sovereignty Strategy .

The regional AKIS is represented by a cluster of public and private agents grouped together and interacting with each other:

The image shows the groups of public and private agents of a regional AKIS:

Agents that generate knowledge.
Public sector agents.
Agents dedicated to training.
Agents of the agri-food sector.
Other AKIS agents.

AKIS agents and interactions

Agents dedicated to knowledge generation

University of La Laguna .
University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria .
Canarian Institute for Agricultural Research ( ICIA ) : the Institute's objectives are the programming, execution and monitoring of research activities, transfer of agricultural technologies and agricultural technological development.
Institute of Natural Products and Agrobiology ( IPNA ) : institute belonging to the CSIC focused on research into the use, conservation and management of natural products and resources and the analysis of chemical, biological or geological parameters of the environment, the study of organisms themselves and their ecosystems.

Public sector agents

Department of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food Sovereignty is a public institution that administers the powers over agriculture, livestock, agri-food, rural development and fisheries in the Autonomous Community.
Agricultural Extension Agencies .
Territorial and Environmental Management and Planning, SA ( GESPLAN ).

Agents dedicated to training

Agricultural and vocational training schools. You can consult a list of institutes and centres here

Agents of the agri-food sector

Canary Islands Institute for Agri-Food Quality ( ICCA ): The Institute is responsible for both standard and differentiated agri-food quality.
PROEXCA : Public company focused on positioning products made on the islands in both national and international markets.
Union of Agricultural Cooperatives of the Canary Islands : is the organization that groups and defends the economic and social interests of the Asturian agri-food cooperative movement represented by 10 Cooperatives .
Association of Banana Producer Organizations of the Canary Islands ( ASPROCAN ).
CULTESA : Public joint venture focused on improving income in the agricultural sector and providing solutions to the different productive and commercial strategies of Canarian farmers.
Canary Islands Confederation of Entrepreneurs .
Tenerife Beekeepers Association , APITEN
Gran Canaria Beekeepers Association , APIGRANCA
National Association of Breeders of Select Palmera Breed Cattle, AVAPAL
Professional Colleges of Agricultural Engineers , Agricultural Technicians Tenerife , Las Palmas and Veterinarians Las Palmas , Tenerife .
Professional Agricultural Organizations (OPAs): COAG-Canarias, ASAGA/ASAJA , UPA-Canarias , and PALCA

Other agents

Technology Surveillance and Competitive Intelligence Platform ( VTCAN ).
Rural Development/Local Action Groups . The GALs can be consulted as collaborating entities of the Local Development Strategies, here .
Operational Groups .
Canary Islands Wine Tourism Cluster .

Instruments and tools for the dynamization of the AKIS

REGIONAL STRATEGIES FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION

The Smart Specialisation Strategy (RIS3) 2021-2027 of the Canary Islands is part of the agenda Canarias Progreso 2030 of the Government of the Canary Islands. This roadmap, which provides the resources and mechanisms to lay the foundations for research and innovation that meets the needs of Canarian society, promotes, in addition to the S4 2021-2027 of the Canary Islands, four fundamental pillars to develop the knowledge economy in the Islands:

The Canary Islands R&D&i Plan 2023-2030.
The New Canary Islands Law on Science, Technology and Innovation.
The Pact for Science 2030.
The Canary Islands Digital Agenda 2025.

CAP 2023-2027

In the field of the common agricultural policy, the Canary Islands allocates the following budget and actions to two of the interventions most directly linked to AKIS:

7161 (Cooperation of EIP operational groups): €500,000.
7201 (Knowledge exchange and information dissemination): €50,000.

More information on the EAFRD interventions of the PEPAC 2023-2027 can be found by clicking here .

TOOLS FOR DYNAMIZATION

Although the diagnosis of the Canary Islands Food Sovereignty Strategy indicates that “the primary sector occupies a position of weakness in the agri-food system with the predominance of vertical and asymmetric commercial relations between the different operators (and) there has been a transfer of income and participation in decision-making that has successively passed from the primary sector to the agri-food industry and currently to distribution, placing the primary sector as a mere supplier of agricultural inputs” ( Canary Islands Food Sovereignty Strategy: 8 ), there is a set of public and private agents that interact collaboratively and that understand the challenges inherent to international competition, food sovereignty and competitiveness, the application of technological innovations and the transfer of knowledge, protection for the Ultraperipheral Regions (ORs) and the European Green Pact ( Canary Islands Confederation of Entrepreneurs (2022): 168 ).

In this sense, the research and innovation of public institutes and the university, the OPAs, private organizations, as well as the 7 Local Action Groups , all contribute with their tools and instruments of institutional linkage for the development of transversal initiatives and projects, conferences, activities and publications on agricultural, livestock and agri-food issues, emphasizing the challenges of 21st century agriculture and rural development in the Canary Islands.