THESSALONIKI – Farmers in northern Greece, upset over issues they say jeopardize their livelihood have conducted protests that included driving convoys of tractors and said they intend to block the Egnatia motorway next week.

It’s in the regions of Kozani, Kastoria, and Grevena, the farmers driving tractors toward the towns to protest problems they said “threaten the sustainability of agricultural and livestock production.”

Dimitris Moschos, a farmer from Polykarpi in Kastoria, whose organic farm was awarded as the best in the EU in in 2023, said that new measures have reduced income from plant and animal products “by an average of 52 percent.”

Farmers in Central Greece’s Larissa and Karditsa also protested what they were delays from the government in subsidies for crops, livestock and farming equipment lost in deadly September floods that hit the agricultural heartland.

Farmer tractor protests are common in Greece and sometimes tie up roads and highways in a strategy to get government concessions.