Not a billion: the government proposes to reduce financial support for farmers

According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, as of November 16, 2018, farmers have used only 35.8% of financial state aid. This year, 1 billion hryvnias were allocated to help farmers. However, starting from the next year, the amount will decrease, writes “Agro-Center”.

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine proposes to reduce financial support for farmers to 800 million UAH in 2019. At the same time, they plan to increase state support for the purchase of agricultural machinery. Next year, they want to allocate up to 1 billion 381.8 million hryvnias.

The feature of the financial support program for farmers in 2019 is that it will include the costs of building and maintaining elevators, as well as fish farming costs. The total amount provided for animal farming support is 4 billion hryvnias.

Compared to 2018, the new draft provides an increase in financing for cheaper loans for farmers, hop farming, planting gardens, vineyards, and berry farming.

66 million hryvnias was allocated in order to cheapen loans for agricultural machinery in 2018. In 2019, this amount will be increased to 127.2 million hryvnias. Up to 400 million hryvnias will be allocated for hop farming, planting gardens, vineyards, and berry farming in 2019 (it was 300 million in 2018).