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The Ministry of Agriculture will start, on Friday, advance payments both for the direct payment schemes, as well as for the rural development measures, Agriculture Minister Adrian announced.
"On October 16, practically tomorrow night, at 00:00 hrs, the Agriculture Ministry will start advance payments both for the direct payment schemes, as well as for the rural development measures. We have allotted the sum of 1.94 billion euro, ensured from the ministry's budget. There are 826,964 beneficiaries for an area of 9.81 million hectares," said, on Wednesday, in the Government sitting, Minister Oros.
The Minister explained that direct payments, where the level of the advance will be 70 pct, are made at an exchange rate of 4.87 RON to 1 euro, as set by the Central European bank on September 30.
"For the PNDR [National Programme for Rural Development] measures, that we are implementing through APIA [Agency for Payments and Interventions in Agriculture], where the advances are up to 85 pct, the exchange rate of 4.78 RON to 1 euro will be used, as set by the Central European bank on December 31, 2019," Oros added.
Asked by the Prime Minister how long these payments will take, the Minister answered: "We, until December 5, will pay all advances, after which we pay the difference, the advance being 70 pct for direct payments and 85 pct from the FADR [Agricultural Fund for Rural Development]".
He mentioned, at the same time, that for the damages caused by the drought in the spring crops, the specialty committees have centralized the information.
"We have synthesis reports, 1.21 million hectares are affected, of which over 700,000 hectares corn. 91,600 farmers are affected. We are identifying sums and solutions so these farmers are reimbursed," Oros also said.
He mentioned that, at the same time, in this period, the Agriculture Ministry is paying compensation schemes due to the evolution of the pandemic.
"Here we are using European money, 150 million euro and 1.4 billion RON from the national budget, such that we have covered the entire ranhe of activities in agriculture and the food industry. These procedures are taking place in this period and will continue in November as well," Oros also said.
