The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry sets its priorities for 2023. The institution aims to maximally use the foreign funds provided in the pre-accession period and to facilitate farmers’ access to budget funding, IPN reports.
Minister Vladimir Bolea presented the Government’s action plan for 2023 in public consultations that involved the main agricultural nongovernmental organizations. “In 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry aims to adopt a number of policies to adjust the national legal framework to the European one and to facilitate the famers’ access to budget or external funding,” noted the official.
It was proposed creating local consultancy centers to help the farmers reach foreign funds. “We must seriously prepare to get pre-accession funds. The farmers will be helped through the agency of these centers and agricultural chambers and they will learn how to work with foreign funding,” said Vladimir Bolea.
As to subsidization in agriculture, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry aims to give priority to SMEs. The Agency for Intervention and Payments in Agriculture (AIPA) will be reorganized to ensure enhanced transparency in the spending of public funds.
In 2022, the Agency received a record number of applications for financial support – 16,146. At the end of 2022, the AIPA paid 1.253,9 billion lei in post-investment subsidies. “Together with the coming into force of the 2023 state budget law, the AIPA resumed the process of paying subsidies. In 2023, the National Agriculture and Rural Development Fund is 1.5 billion lei. The applications submitted by agricultural producers in 2022 are given priority in the examination and payment processes. This year the AIPA has examined 7,781 applications and 1.233,3 billion lei subsidies is to be paid,” said the minister.
The discussion also centered on the necessity of developing the seeds production sector and the irrigation sector. “In 2023, three irrigations systems in southern and northern districts will be relaunched and will irrigate over 7,500 ha. The Ministry’s priority is to create the necessary framework for the producers to obtain value added with export potential, while the rural areas to prosper and the young people in villages to be motivated to become involved in the development of their native places,” stated Vladimir Bolea.
