More than 2,900 billion forints reached farmers in the new agricultural support cycle

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In a video uploaded to his social media page, István Nagy said that in the new agricultural support cycle starting in 2023, we have already awarded almost 2,900 billion forints of support from the 3,150 billion forints available for Pillar II agricultural and rural development support, with 102,000 support documents.

The Minister announced that our country used the entire budget of the Rural Development Program, which closed at the end of last year, of approximately 3,000 billion forints, without any loss of funds

Thanks to this, 393 thousand support documents reached the beneficiaries. The significance of the program is shown by the investments made, which fundamentally contributed to the livability and development of the Hungarian countryside, as well as to strengthening domestic food security. The strategic goal of this period was to improve rural living conditions in order to strengthen the retention capacity of the population; in addition, the structure of agriculture also shifted significantly, as greater emphasis was placed on the production of higher value-added products. Between 2021 and 2023, the government provided an unprecedented amount of funds for rural development calls, with an unprecedented number of winning applications. These subsidies have significantly strengthened the efficiency and resilience of agricultural enterprises in the changing natural and economic environment, the Minister of Agriculture added. István Nagy explained that the current EU cycle also offers producers unique opportunities to implement their developments and investments, while strengthening producer liquidity is also important. Advance payments, subsidized loan structures and interest cost subsidies all help agricultural actors. During the agricultural support period of the Common Agricultural Policy Strategic Plan, thanks to 80 percent domestic co-financing, a total of 5,650 billion forints is available to farmers. Based on the government’s decision, 3,150 billion forints can be used for agricultural and rural development purposes, so that the competitiveness of Hungarian agriculture continues to strengthen. The implementation of the new cycle is progressing at the right pace, with the Ministry of Agriculture having already awarded more than 92 percent of the budget amount, i.e. 2,900 billion forints in support, by the beginning of January this year, with 102,000 supporting documents, the Minister stated.

AM