Over 800 young Farmers to Modernize their Agricultural Land

Applications for support under the NATURA 2000 environment protection network for agricultural lands (Measure 213) are being accepted for the first time this year, numbering 2,472 to date, Deputy Agriculture and Food Minister Svetlana Boyanova said Monday. She was speaking at a news conference at the end of the informational campaign aimed at five basic measures of the programme.

 In the current year there were no applications for financial assistance under measure 112 "Setting up Young Farmers" due to the lack of resources and Measure 142 "Setting up Producer Groups" due to the lack of interest. A total of 802 young farmers will be able to absorb financial resources amounting to 12 million euro under Measure 121 "Modernization of Agricultural Holdings" with the approval of the sixth revision of the Rural Development Programme.

 A total of 383 applications for close to 96 million euro have so far been submitted under Measure 121 "Modernization of agricultural holdings" this year. A total of 1972 applications have been submitted under Measure 214 "Agri-environment payments", or over 200 more than in 2010. With the revisions of the relevant ordinance, filling out applications under this measure is simplified by groups of crops.

 All unclear texts in the ordinance, which led to misinterpretations and misunderstandings earlier, have been revised, Boyanova said. In 2012 the Rural Development Programme will put an emphasis on young farmers, stock breeders, as well as a Guarantee Fund, which will start at the beginning of 2012. The fund will support small and medium-sized enterprises, which are beneficiaries of measures 121, 122 and 123. According to Boyanova, the conducted informational campaign was exceptionally timely and necessary.

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