Harvest festival celebrations are taking place all over the country.
On the occasion of the Harvest Festival, the Minister of Agriculture, Czesław Siekierski, addressed a special letter to farmers. Among other things, he informed them when aid will be paid to farms affected by this year's drought and other natural disasters.
– Dear Farmers! Esteemed Guests of the Harvest Festival!
Thanksgiving for the harvest is our wonderful old Polish tradition, which crowns the many months of work of every farmer. Currently, thanks to your work and the strength of our agriculture, Poland is not only self-sufficient in food, but also contributes to the feeding of other nations.This year we celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Poland's accession to the European Union, thanks to which our country has achieved significant economic success. Two decades of support for Polish agriculture from European funds have resulted in technological progress thanks to which the work of farmers is becoming easier and more effective – the minister notes in the letter.
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Successes of the Ministry of Agriculture
Czesław Siekierski further emphasizes:
– Despite great achievements, today we have to face new challenges and threats, such as disruptions in trade and distribution due to war, animal and plant diseases or weather anomalies caused by climate change.
The latter have been particularly hard on Polish farmers this year, with frosts, droughts, downpours and hailstorms. In these difficult situations, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is doing everything it can to ensure that farmers are not left alone. We have received funds from the EU to compensate affected farms, and we are also making efforts to launch additional funds at both the EU and national levels.
Dear Farmers!
Low profitability of production in 2023, irrational requirements of the Green Deal and excessive imports of agricultural products from Ukraine were the reasons for farmers' protests.
After our interventions, the requirements of the Green Deal were significantly reduced, making it more accessible to farmers; we can say that we have made it an agricultural Green Deal. The support of Prime Minister Donald Tusk was very helpful in introducing simplifications and changes to the Green Deal at the EU level.
Since June this year, at our request, the European Union has introduced quotas determining the permissible volume of imports of sensitive agricultural products from Ukraine.
We have also introduced subsidies for corn, subsidies for grain producers and we are implementing the payment of the so-called drought aid. In addition, subsidies are implemented for the interest on liquidity loans and financial assistance is paid to Rural Housewives' Associations and beekeepers. For all these forms of assistance, almost PLN 6.5 billion from national funds for agricultural producers will go.
In EU direct and area payments for 2023, we paid Polish farmers nearly PLN 20 billion, which means that we used European funds at a level of almost 100%.
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How does the Ministry of Agriculture intend to support affected farmers?
Further, Minister Siekierski informs that currently the Ministry of Agriculture is preparing the following financial assistance:
– Firstly, for farms affected by April frosts and May hailstorms (this applies to orchards, soft fruit plantations and vineyards). Secondly, for farms where crops were largely destroyed by storms and hailstorms. We intend to pay out both forms of aid in the autumn of this year.
Third, a separate form of support will be aid for farms affected by drought and other natural disasters. This aid will be implemented as part of the national budget expenditure for 2025.
At the same time, we work to stabilize agricultural markets, improve incomes in agriculture, and support the agricultural insurance system.
Farmers have not yet received drought aid for 2023
Let us recall that aid for last year's crop losses is still being paid out.
So far, over PLN 941 million has been allocated to 120.3 thousand farmers.
In total, over 133,000 applications for aid were registered from agricultural producers whose farms suffered crop losses due to adverse weather conditions in 2023, exceeding 30% of the average annual crop production.
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