Farmers United: How Portugal’s Farmers Confederation (CAP) Protects Rural Rights

A voice long associated with Portugal’s transition to democracy resurfaced this week to remind the country that the struggle for freedom of association did not end in 1974. Sociologist and former cabinet member António Barreto used a public forum in Lisbon to underline the role the Confederação dos Agricultores de Portugal (CAP) has played—often quietly—in safeguarding civil liberties for people who live and work outside the big cities.

Lisbon forum underscores crucial role of farmers’ confederation

The event, organised by CAP in partnership with the Gulbenkian Foundation, was meant to tackle water scarcity and rising production costs. Yet Barreto chose to open his intervention with a historical reflection, arguing that the farmers’ confederation “helped normalise the right to organise at a moment when the countryside was still catching up with the urban enthusiasm of post-revolutionary Lisbon and Porto.” By situating rural associativism next to labour unions and political parties, he credited CAP with giving Portuguese democracy a geographic balance that the early movers from Coimbra, Beja, and Évora still recall.

From post-revolution turbulence to institutional pillar

Founded in the summer of 1974, just weeks after the Revolução dos Cravos, CAP grew out of spontaneous committees set up to defend landowners and smallholders during the period of land occupations known as the saneamento. What began as an attempt to ensure property rights soon evolved into a nationwide network capable of negotiating with successive provisional governments. Barreto, who served as agriculture minister between 1976 and 1978, noted that “without CAP, the countryside would have lacked a structured partner when Portugal started designing its first Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) commitments ahead of EEC membership.” The coincidence of acronyms sometimes wryly amused Brussels officials, but the Portuguese body quickly learned to navigate both corridors of power.

An association that shaped national agriculture

Over the decades CAP pressed for irrigation projects in Alentejo, defended family farming in EU subsidy talks, and lobbied for phytosanitary rules that allowed Lusitanian fruit to reach supermarkets in Madrid and Paris. Its membership—estimated today at more than 250,000 producers—covers everything from export-oriented wine estates in the Douro to goat herders in the Serra da Estrela. By ensuring that “even a shepherd from Trás-os-Montes can sit at the same negotiation table as a cereal magnate from Ribatejo,” as Barreto put it, the confederation kept the spirit of plural representation alive.

Present-day challenges: climate, markets, subsidies

The applause that followed Barreto’s historical sketch soon gave way to the pressing present. Recent government figures show irrigation reservoirs in the Alentejo at barely 41% of capacity, the energy bill for greenhouse producers up 22% year-on-year, and a fresh round of EU eco-rules that will trim direct payments if carbon footprints are not reduced. CAP’s president, Eduardo Oliveira e Sousa, warned that “without coordinated policies, Portugal risks losing up to €500 million in agricultural output by 2028.” Barreto linked these numbers to his main theme: associative strength is what allows small and medium-sized farmers to pool risk, share legal advice, and bargain for more favourable credit lines.

Why freedom of association still matters in the countryside

Portugal’s constitution enshrines the right to form organisations, but Barreto reminded the audience that in many villages the social cost of openly criticising local authorities can still be high. A strong national confederation gives producers cover, he argued, because grievances voiced in Lisbon are less likely to trigger personal retaliation back home. The sociologist drew a parallel with the country’s fishing co-ops, which have recently succeeded in delaying restrictive quotas thanks to their collective weight.

Government reaction and next steps

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Agriculture later issued a brief note acknowledging CAP’s contribution “to the defence of democratic values in rural Portugal” and promising closer cooperation on the upcoming Strategic Plan for the Common Agricultural Policy 2026-2030. Insiders at Praça do Comércio say the ministry is considering tax-credit mechanisms for farm-based renewable energy, an idea CAP has been pushing to contain soaring electricity costs.

A reminder for Europe and Portugal

Barreto’s intervention, though delivered in the familiar calm of a Lisbon auditorium, was ultimately a warning. As climate stress, volatile markets, and geopolitical shocks reorder the food chain, Portugal will need institutions able to defend both producers and consumers without sacrificing democratic norms. For him, CAP’s greatest achievement is not a particular subsidy won or a regulation amended but the culture of organised participation it fostered. In a year when associations across Europe face scepticism and membership fatigue, that may turn out to be the most valuable harvest of all.