Grants to be extended for cultivation of arable lands within Natura 2000

The payments for cultivation of arable lands within the EU ecological network Natura 2000, which are funded under the Rural Development Programme (RDP), will start next week, announced the Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food, Svetlana Boyanova at the Forum dubbed ''The Agricultural Sector and EU Funding''. 
Some 2400 applications were filed for 790,000 decares of arable land under Measure 213. It is envisaged that agricultural producers would receive some BGN 3 mln of EU grants. The funds will be extended to farmers who do not conduct agricultural activities at definite periods of the year so as not to disturb the natural habitat of native birds and animals as well as to preserve valuable plant species. Currently, about one-third of the Bulgarian territory, or nearly 38 mln ha fall within the territorial range of the EU network Natura 2000. 

In 2011, some BGN 931.17 were remitted to the accounts of famers and agricultural producers under the first pillar of direct payments and agro-environmental policy, announced Vassil Grudev, Deputy Executive Director of State Fund Agriculture. In his words, the agri-environment measure is the alibi for the European Commission, which enables it to maintain the high levels of aid for the agrarian sector. In fact, Measure 214 under the Rural Development Programme for the transfer of agri-environmental payments started extremely unsuccessfully in Bulgaria. Only in 2011, our bottom-ranked country managed to score high results in terms of the absorption of EU grants under this measure. So far, over BGN 20 mln grants have been transferred under this programme," indicated Grudev. The experts with the State Fund Agriculture believe that any modern farm in Bulgaria will encounter no problems with the implementation of the components of the so-called greening measures, provided in the new agricultural policy of the European Community.

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