THOUSANDS of farmers in Spain staged a second day of tractor demonstrations across the country today to demand changes in European Union farming policies and measures to combat production cost hikes and severe drought.

Protesters blocked motorways and cut off access to the eastern port of Castellon and the south-eastern Jerez airport.

Spanish media reported that a thousand tractors were heading slowly towards Barcelona’s city centre, causing major traffic jams on roads into the north-eastern port capital of Spain’s Catalonia region.

The protests, involving several thousand people on tractors and in other vehicles, have not been backed by Spain’s three main farming organisations, which have called for separate protests in the coming days.

Several media reports have linked many of the protests to conservative groups. So far there have been no serious incidents.

The demonstrations are expected to continue over the coming weeks with a major protest in Madrid on February 21.

Speaking in Spain’s parliament today, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez pledged to help farmers and take their case to Europe.

The Agriculture Ministry announced about €270 million (£230m) in aid to 140,000 farmers on Tuesday to compensate for Spain’s severe drought and problems caused by Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Agriculture Minister Luis Planas Puchades met with farmers’ unions on Friday, but failed to persuade them to halt the protests.

There have been other protests in countries such as France, Poland and Greece in recent days.

The European Commission has already made concessions to farmers over the last few weeks on environmental and aid rules and this week decided to shelve plans to halve the use of pesticides and other dangerous products.