Moldova: More categories of farmers will benefit from subsidies, in particular, micro and small agricultural producers.
This is provided for by amendments to the Law on the principles of subsidizing the development of agriculture and rural areas, which the parliament adopted in the first reading. The document aims to improve the access of smallholders to subsidies. At the same time, the amendments provide for the inclusion in the law of new categories of recipients of subsidies. In particular, this assistance will be available for “micro-agricultural producers” who own or use up to 2 hectares of arable land and / or up to 1 hectare of land occupied by fruiting perennial crops, or 1 hectare of vegetables in the open field, or 0.1 ha of vegetables in greenhouses, or up to 40 head of cattle or up to 50 head of pigs, sheep / goats and in any case does not exceed the criteria established by the Law on Small and Medium Enterprises for a micro-enterprise. In addition, small, medium and large agricultural producers will be able to receive subsidies. A small farmer is a farmer who owns or uses from 2 to 10 hectares of arable land, and / or from 1 to 3 hectares of land occupied by fruiting perennial crops, or from 1 hectare to 3 hectares of vegetables in the open field, or from 0.1 to 0.3 hectares of vegetables in greenhouses, or from 41 to 100 heads of cattle, or from 51 to 2000 heads of pigs, or from 51 to 150 heads of sheep / goats and in any case does not exceed the criteria established by the Law on small and medium enterprises for small businesses. The average is an agricultural producer who owns or uses from 10 to 75 hectares of arable land and / or from 3 to 15 hectares of land occupied by fruiting perennial crops, or from 3 to 5 hectares of vegetables in the open field, or from 0, 3 to 1 ha of vegetables in greenhouses, or from 100 to 250 head of cattle or from 2001 to 10,000 head of pigs, or from 150 to 450 head of sheep / goats and in any case does not exceed the criteria established by the Law on Small and Medium Enterprises for a medium-sized enterprise. A large agricultural producer will be considered a producer who owns or uses more than 75 hectares of arable land and / or more than 15 hectares of land occupied by fruiting perennial crops, or more than 5 hectares of vegetables in the open field, or more than 1 hectares of vegetables in greenhouses, or more than 250 head of cattle or more than 10,000 head of pigs, or more than 450 head of sheep / goats. The bill was developed to facilitate access of agricultural producers to the funds of the National Fund for the Development of Agriculture and Rural Areas, as well as to improve the policy of subsidizing the development of agriculture and the environment in rural areas by adapting to the needs of the national economy. The document also provides for an increase in the efficiency of the process of monitoring the receipt of applications for post-investment grants. It is provided that monthly, semi-annual and annual activity reports should be published to avoid incurring debts to grant applicants. According to official data, by October 1, 2021, 3143 applications for post-investment subsidies for 544.4 million lei were received. At the same time, in 2021, the volume of the National Fund for the Development of Agriculture and Rural Areas is 1.1 billion lei. 773.9 million lei are provided for post-investment subsidies. // 07.12.2021 – InfoMarket
