Farmers receive subsidies from supplemented fund

Farmers started receiving subsidies from the 100 million lei supplement added to the Farmers Support Fund in a recent Budget amendment, Info-Prim Neo reports. Anatolie Fala, expert at the Rural Development Agency ACSA, commissioned by the Ministry of Agriculture to assist potential subsidy beneficiaries with developing business plans, said 1,600 plans have already been lodged with the Agency for Agricultural Payments and Intervention and 85% of them have been approved. Most business plans concern vegetable cultivation in protected and controlled environments, development of orchards, purchases of irrigation equipment. Talking about the problems related to the development of the business plans, Anatolie Fala said that not all the farms are registered formally, many do not keep accounts, making it difficult to assess their capacity to implement the proposed plans. Vladimir Konoval, the owner of an agricultural enterprise in Straseni, says that while the procedure of obtaining subsidies has become more difficult than in previous years, it is easier to control the money. “You cannot operate without a well conceived plan forever, without serious marketing assessment. Besides, the Agency for Agricultural Payments and Intervention will monitor the process and will tell which effects the subsidies had”. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry, a total amount of 330 million lei have been paid in farm subsidies this year.