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On September 23, a meeting of the Council of Ministers for Agriculture and Fisheries of the European Union (EU) took place in Brussels, where the implementation of the second year of the Common Agricultural Policy Strategic Plan (CAP SP) was evaluated.

The Minister for Agricultur, Armands Krauze: “I call on the European Commission and the Member States to continue their work to make the Strategic Plans of the Common Agricultural Policy simpler. Implementation of the agricultural policy must be made more comprehensible, both for farmers themselves and for society as a whole. In our opinion, the European Commission should listen to our proposal, which has received almost unanimous support from the Member States.”

As the first years of implementation of the CAP SP shows, management of the agricultural policy system is complex for both farmers and administrations. Instead of the simplification sought, the new implementation model of the CAP SP has created an additional administrative burden, focusing on technical conditions and requirements rather than the results achieved.

Latvia has therefore prepared a proposal to simplify the planning and reporting of CAP SP. Mr Krauze also drew attention to the fact that, with each subsequent year of implementation of the CAP SP, Member States will introduce more and more measures, which will also increase the administrative burden of reporting on farmers and the authorities responsible.

It should be noted that the complex and fragmented system of planning and reporting of CAP SP can also have financial consequences for Member States. Unable to adequately justify deviations from the planned indicator values, countries may be subjected to reductions in aid or even suspensions. But one of the main problems is the European Commission’s (EC) requirement to provide an exhaustive justification for any, even the smallest, deviation, despite the fact that EU law does not.

Latvia’s proposal to simplify CAP SP has received the support of almost all the EU Member States, demonstrating the importance and urgency of the issue.

The Minister for Agriculture, Armands Krauze, also discussed the complexity of the CAP SP system and the justification for excessively time-consuming deviations in bilateral negotiations with the EC Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Janusz Wojcehowski (Janusz Wojciechowski).

In a conversation with the Commissioner, as well as during a discussion in the Council, the Minister urged the EC to grant EU emergency support to Latvian agriculture. This year, too, a number of adverse conditions have been experienced – in May, a devastating frost, a severe storm in July, as well as winter has caused great damage to winter crops. Grain quality has suffered and the expected yield of cereals, potatoes, fruit, berries and vegetables has decreased. Moreover, the sector has yet to recover from the natural cataclysms experienced in 2023.

Information source: Ministry of Agriculture

In 2024, farmers had the opportunity to apply for partial reimbursement of crop, livestock, sowing, and planting insurance premiums until July 1. A total of 2,418 applications were received, amounting to a total of 10.91 million euros. The Rural Support Service (RSS) processes applications very quickly, and many farmers have already received payments that partially compensate for the cost of insurance policies.

The aim of this support is to encourage farmers to participate in risk reduction within the agricultural sector by insuring their land, animals, and crops.

Deputy Director of RSS, Andris Grundulis, commented on the farmers’ activity: “There is great interest in this support. This is also facilitated by the very variable weather conditions observed in recent years – hail alternates with drought, there are frosts and heavy rains. The insured areas have increased; this year, they are 78,000 hectares more than last year – a total of 421,000 hectares of land is insured. It is gratifying that farmers are securing their farms against risks.”

Fifty percent of the eligible costs of purchasing the insurance policy are compensated, and other conditions are also taken into account when calculating the final rate. More details can be found on the RSS website under “Crop, Livestock, Sowing, and Planting Insurance Premiums.”

Payments are also made from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development.

Information source: Rural Support Service

We inform you, that employees of Ltd “ActusQ” are going on collective annual leave from July 22 to August 4. We will resume working in usual working mode on August 5.

In case of any urgent questions, please contact us in advance.

From June 20, 2024, to July 4, 2024, applications can be submitted for state support for losses caused by the storm on August 7, 2023.

Applications can be submitted by those farms that informed the Service about hail damage in a timely manner and where the Service conducted area inspections. Support will be paid for areas declared in 2023 that suffered damage to fruit, berries, perennial plantings, vegetables, cereals, oil plants, and leguminous plants (a detailed list of crops is in Appendix 357 of the Cabinet of Ministers regulations).

Support for damaged areas of cereals, oil plants, or leguminous crops can be received if the damaged area constitutes at least 90 percent of the total declared area of the respective crop and the respective crop areas were not insured in 2023.

In total, there are 133 farmers who meet the criteria. They will receive letters in the coming days with information about the eligible areas and an invitation to apply for support.

The application form can be found in the “State Support Applications” section of the Electronic Application System.

Information source: Rural Support Service