site.bta State Fund Agriculture Starts Payment of Nearly 1 Billion Leva of Subsidies to Farmers

State Fund Agriculture Starts Payment of Nearly 1 Billion Leva of Subsidies to Farmers


Sofia, January 26 (BTA) - State Fund Agriculture has started the
payment of 949 million leva to 94,000 applicants under the
Single Payment per Area Scheme (SPAS), the financial institution
said Monday. The scheme's total budget for 2014 amounts to
1,051 million leva.

The financial package has to be distributed among the lands
declared for financial support by the agricultural owners in
2014: a total of 3,845,735.44 ha. However, this exceeds the
agricultural area of 3,492,383 ha declared by Bulgaria and
indicated in a European Commission decision of May 31, 2007.
Therefore, the stake of 300.96 lv/ha under the SPAS had to be
reduced to 270.51 lv/ha so as to not exceed the budget allocated
to Bulgaria, the press release reads.

For the first time in 2014, farmers can apply to both the SPAS
and the Redistribution Payment Scheme (RPS) so as to receive an
additional subsidy for the first 30 ha. The RPS' total budget
for 2014 amounts to some 100 million leva.

Agricultural producers will receive the redistribution payments
and the subsidies under the SPAS for land in good agricultural
condition in March, the press release reads.