MADRID – Thousands of farmers all over Spain began two days of protests on Friday, with tractor caravans, demonstrations and agricultural products tossed into the street to decry what they call the agricultural sector’s worst crisis in modern times.

The agricultural organizations that called for the demonstrations said in a communique that farmers came out in support of more than 200 protests nationwide without incident.

The demonstrations are to end Saturday with a march through downtown Madrid.

Farmers denounced the precarious situation the sector is going through, the drop in prices of their products and increases in production costs.

They called for “fair” prices and market regulation, with farmers in a position to negotiate minimum prices linked to production costs, and controls on the dominance of giant distributors.

Spain’s farmers also urged the European Union to assure European preference for agricultural products grown here, and that third countries be required to give the same production and health guarantees as European countries.

As an example of the demonstrations, more than 4,000 farmers from some 240 towns in the Castile-Leon region drove their tractors down the highways and all farming cooperatives stopped their activities.

In Valladolid, hundreds of farmers gathered in a downtown plaza and burned tires under a sign bearing the basis of their protest: “Against the crisis that is ruining us.”

Meanwhile in the southern region of Andalusia, organizers counted 80 in the province who joined the strike, while acknowledging that some minimal services were maintained “for justified reasons,” as in the case of perishable products.

The manager of the AGACA group representing farmers in the northwestern region of Galicia, Higinio Mougan, said that the strike was supported by 90 percent of dairy farmers and said that “not one liter has been milked.” EFE