The Agency for Interventions and Payments in Agriculture started to accept applications to allocate subsidies for 2019 from the National Fund for Agriculture and Rural Development. As of February 4, applications can be also submitted for subsidies in advance, which are intended for beginner enterprises, IPN reports.

Iurie Ușurelu, secretary general of state at the Ministry of Agriculture, Regional and Environment, told a news conference that the 2019 National Fund for Agriculture and Rural Development consists of 900 million lei. A sum of 390 million lei will be directed as subsidies to producers whose applications for subsidies haven’t been covered in 2018.

Iurie Ușurelu noted that applications for subsidies can also be filed online. The Agency for Interventions and Payments in Agriculture has the task of developing the information system “Register of Farmers” and the register of assets owned by farmers, which will enable to switch over to subsidization per hectare of farmland in the near future.

The Agency’s vice director Vadim Curmei spoke about the results of the subsidization of agricultural producers in 2018. Over 7,000 applications were received last year, up 27% on 2017. The requested sum exceeded 1 billion lei. Small producers filed 65% of the applications for subsidies. “The fact that we have such a large number of applicant small producers that benefit from subsidies shows that these develop and want to grow,” stated the functionary.

“It should be noted that the subsidized farms and enterprises attracted investments of over 6 billion lei to production. There were purchased modern agricultural machinery, refrigerators and other goods and created 4,635 jobs,” added Iurie Ușurelu.

Applications for subsidies for 2019 can be submitted by the end of October.