Irrigation costs to be partially subsidized again in 2013

Three new subsidization measures will be introduced in 2013, one of which is the old partial subsidization of irrigation-related costs, director general of the Agency for Payments and Intervention in Agriculture Petru Maleru said in an interview, quoted by Info-Prim Neo.  ”This year’s drought taught us a lesson. Thus, we will resume the partial subsidization of the irrigation-related costs. The procedure will be similar to that of 2011. The money will be transferred to the accounts of farmers, not to Moldova ’s Water Agency. They will have to prove that they used a certain volume of water for irrigation and this thing had a beneficial effect on production. There will be covered 50% of the irrigation costs,” said Petru Maleru.  He also said that the costs for paying taxes for registering transactions to purchase, exchange or inherit plots at cadastre offices and for authenticating them and other transactions that stimulate the consolidation of plots at the notary will be also partially subsidized. “We are now finishing designing the cost subsidization mechanism and will present it at the start of the next year,” said the Agency’s head. The third new measure is aimed at encouraging the foundation of producer groups that may unite on a commercial basis and ensure the quantities of products needed by the internal retail outlets and for export. There will be supported the creation of producer group logos and activities to buy product sorting and packing lines, which increase the comparative advantage of the products delivered on the market. The money needed to implement these measures will be allocated from the agriculture subsidization fund and from the Agriculture Competitiveness Enhancement Project that is financed by the World Bank. The measures to subsidize the lending to farmers by banks, to insure the risks in agriculture, to buy pure-bred animals and to increase their number will be continued next year. The 2013 state budget adopted by Parliament in the final reading on November 2 includes 400 million lei that will be transferred to the agriculture subsidization fund.