Poland to get EU support for small farms
During a visit in Poland, the EU Commissioner for Agriculture said the country will receive around 150 billion euro 32.6 billion in EU funding for farms in the years 2021 -- 2027.
Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski also praised the importance of small farms, not just for Poland but globally.
Small farms with an area of up to 2 hectares account for 12 percent of the world's agricultural land and produce 35 percent of food for the entire world, according to Wojciechowski.
If small farms were liquidated, and their total area was incorporated into large farms, global food production would shrink by 35 percent, Wojciechowski said on Sunday in the village of Gorno, southern Poland.
Wojciechowski said that Poland would receive around 150 billion EUR 32.6 billion for agriculture in the years 2021 -- 2027, including 10 percent for small and medium-sized farms.
If we take into account the 14.5 million hectares of agricultural land in Poland, this means over PLN 10,000 EUR 2,174 for every statistical hectare of Polish agricultural land and over PLN 120,000 EUR 26,200 for every statistical Polish farm, he said.
Wojciechowski said that 4 million have already been liquidated in the EU, despite the fact that the liquidation of farms had to be stopped. He said there were 14 million farms and now there are 10 million.
He said Poland had been the only EU country to have introduced subsidies for fertilisers in order to compensate farmers for price rises.
In all 27 EU states, the prices of fertilisers have gone up. Poland is the only country that has offered assistance to farmers to deal with the impact of their price growth, he said.
In mid-April, the EC approved the Polish subsidy programme valued at PLN 3.9 billion EUR 847 million for the agricultural sector. The beneficiaries will be able to receive grants of up to 500 EUR 108.6 per hectare of arable land and PLN 250 EUR 54.3 per hectare of grassland or pasture. The upper limit of the aid will be for an area of 50 hectares.