APIA: 95 pct of Romanian farmers received surface payments

APIA: 95pct of Romanian farmers received surface payments

Newsroom 31/01/2014 | 15:50

The Agency for Payments and Interventions in Agriculture (APIA) has paid Romanian farmers some RON 3.3 billion (EUR 752 million) since the beginning of the year as part of last year’s campaign. Overall, 95 percent of the Romanian farmers which applied for direct payments have received the funds, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Out of the entire sum, RON 2.45 billion represented the money for the single area payment scheme (SAPS) which went to 905,000 local farmers out of 1.05 million applicants. RON 73.4 million were paid as part of the Axis 2 of the National Rural Development Program (NPRD) and over RON 458 million were paid to a total of 370,000 local farmers as Complementary National Direct Payments. RON 15.1 million were paid through market measures and another RON 1 million was paid for programs for the promotion of farming products. Another RON 7.5 went to support measures for the poor (Fund for European Aid for the Most Deprived).

APIA also paid some Ron 347 million for state aid measures.

Over the next period APIA will continue to make payments so that farmers “have access to all the necessary funds before starting spring works,” said state secretary George Octavian Turtoi.

The EU’s direct payment per hectare will rise from about EUR 139 in 2013 to EUR 196 by 2020.