The Ministry of Agriculture has drafted several normative acts regarding measures for farmers affected by this year’s severe drought, Minister Florin Barbu informed, on Wednesday, at the beginning of the Government meeting.
„All these acts will be brought for adoption in the next Government meetings. First of all, we discussed with the banking environment and the ASF [Financial Supervisory Authority] and found an agreed formula regarding the first measure – a mechanism through which we set up a drought insurance system for an agricultural area of 7 million hectares, representing autumn and spring crops. Such a mechanism is needed to help our farmers who face severe drought from year to year. Through this mechanism, a compensation of up to Ron 3,000 per hectare, something that will lead, from the discussions we had with the banking system, to the unblocking of lending to Romanian farmers,” said Barbu.
He added that the necessary funds for this mechanism come, on the one hand, from the contribution of 3% of the subsidy paid by farmers, supplemented by approximately 17 million euros annually from the European Union, to which is added a contribution from the state budget.
„We are coming with an addition requested by farmers to the ‘Farmer’s Credit’ measure, which has a fixed interest rate of 1.95%. First of all, we are increasing the degree of guarantee (…) to 100% of the funds made available to the Ministry of Agriculture. This change is needed to support Romanian agricultural and production businesses. In addition, the credit will be able to be used for the repayment of installments for the years 2023 – 2024, so that farmers can get through this extremely difficult year without having the pressure of rates and interests,” added the Minister of Agriculture.
According to him, another measure refers to the de jure suspension of loans that have an interest rate greater than 2% plus ROBOR, outstanding installments, as well as interest and fees due for farmers who have a calamity report completed for agricultural years 2023 – 2024.
AGERPRES
