Farm subsidies to be allocated along 11 categories

The amount of 250 million lei planned to be distributed in farm subsidies this year will be allocated along 11 different purpose areas, with an emphasis being placed on investment, Info-Prim Neo reports. Agriculture Minister Vasile Bumacov says the new scheme that has been proposed to Parliament for consideration is in line with the farm subsidy mechanism adopted in 2010, which aims to establish clear eligibility criteria and a common institutional system for the management and monitoring of subsidies through the Agency for Agricultural Interventions and Payments. The new document provides that the applications for financial support submitted by farmers in 2009 and 2010 and which remained unmet due to limited financial resources will be examined this year. Besides this, the government still owes important amounts in subsidies for the creation of vineyards and orchards and in VAT refund payments for 2009. “We hope that the Budget is amended so that the Agricultural Subsidy Fund is supplemented, enabling us to meet older and newer requests for subvention”, said Vasile Bumacov. The purpose areas for which subsidy payments will be allocated are the following: risk insurance in agriculture; investment in creation of multi-annual plantations; investment in cultivation of vegetables on protected land (nurseries and hothouses); purchase of farm equipment, irrigation equipment and anti-freezing installations; promotion and development of environmentally friendly farming; investment in renovation of livestock farms; purchase of animals for breeding and investment in gene pools etc.