Countless changes and new elements have appeared in the new Common Agricultural Policy (KAP)

(Photo: PIxabay)

In his opening speech, Balázs Győrffy, the president of the National Chamber of Agriculture (NAK), drew attention to the fact that the period 2023-27 will provide a lot of opportunities: the agricultural and food industry can use a budget of nearly 15 billion euros, i.e. more than HUF 5,000 billion to farm. However, this requires adequate preparation on the part of the consultants, professional organizations and farmers in order to effectively use the resources. NAK is currently working to support the development of the detailed rules and their method, as well as to inform farmers in the most efficient way. On the organization’s portal, the most important information related to the new Common Agricultural Policy has been collected on one page, where a KAP calculator suitable for calculating the estimated amount of individual direct subsidies for this year is also available. Katalin Anikó Horváth, the EU representative of the Community Support Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, in her presentation on the support options of Pillar I, among other things, highlighted the new area-based basic support (BISS), which is a basic level income support that promotes sustainability. This subsidy replaces the current SAPS and greening subsidy and aims to provide a predictable basic level of income support per hectare for farms. Depending on the size of the eligible areas, the specific value of the subsidy in a given year can be around EUR 147/ha, but it must remain within a predetermined range.

István Madarász, head of the Agricultural Strategic Coordination Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, spoke about extended conditionality and the agroecological program, among other things. He emphasized that from now on, more green requirements will have to be met in order to receive subsidies (this is the so-called extended conditionality), for example, elements of greening will now become a prerequisite for all direct subsidies and area-based rural development payments. The concept of eligible area is also expanded, thanks to which farmers will have no interest in converting agro-ecologically valuable areas into arable land. The agroecology program is also a new annual payment subsidy in the system that encourages the use of agricultural practices beneficial to the climate and the environment.

The publication of the decrees affecting Pillar I can be expected in the second half of March, but the drafts will be known earlier in the framework of social consultation

Attila Nagy, head of the Development Policy Department of the Ministry of Agriculture II. presented the system of pillar-based, within this, investment subsidies, which will be intensified starting this year. In this round as well, many new things arise, so for example, in the case of the requirements for applicants, the minimum plant size will increase from the current 6 to 10 thousand euros standard production value (STÉ). Another relief is that until now 50 percent of income from agriculture had to be proven, from now on the required ratio will be only 40 percent. The chances of smaller players can be increased by the fact that small and large projects will appear in separate calls. The basic support intensity will be 50 percent, but this ratio can be further increased with additional elements. In addition to the previous elements of young agricultural producer (+15%) and producer cooperation (+10%), the following are newly introduced: farm transfer (+15%), organic farming (+10%), guarantee (+5%). The level of intensity can be increased to a maximum of 65 percent, but this ratio can go up to 80 percent in the case of non-productive investments.