There is no threat to the implementation of direct and area payments for 2023.

– During last week’s meeting at the ARiMR headquarters in Warsaw, the president of the Agency, Wojciech Legawiec, informed deputy minister Stefan Krajewski on taking actions to intensify the process of disbursement of direct and area payments for last year – we read in the statement issued after this meeting.

In turn, the vice-president of ARiMR, Ryszard Zarudzki, informed that The agency is monitoring the situation regarding the transfer of subsidies to farmers. This was to be served, among others, online meeting with the directors of ARiMR’s regional branches, during which the status of payment applications was discussed and urgent tasks needed to complete their payments were indicated.

– ARiMR informed the deputy head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development that there is no threat to the implementation of direct and area payments for 2023, because the deadline for issuing a decision on their granting expires on May 31, 2024, and the deadline for payment of the granted payments is June 30 2024. Intensive work is also underway, including IT, to prepare this year’s subsidy campaign – added in the announcement.

In his speech, Deputy Minister Stefan Krajewski emphasized – we read further – that the common goal of both the ministry and the Agency is, above all, to meet the needs of beneficiaries, which will only be possible with good cooperation between both institutions. He pointed out how important it is to set priorities so that all tasks are completed on time. Being aware of the Agency’s burden of numerous tasks, he also asked for regular communication of any problems ARiMR encounters in its activities.

Or maybe get a confession first?

Then, after a few days with farmers in the province. Deputy Minister of Agriculture Adam Nowak meets in Opole and “admits”: – There is a problem with the payment of direct subsidies. It turns out that there is a lack of funds for eco-schemes, because farmers have submitted many more applications for these practices than there is money. The demand for eco-schemes exceeds the budget by 30 percent. We are now calculating how to divide the cash into points.

What was the purpose of this statement by the “freshly minted” deputy minister, quickly picked up by the industry media, and was it really consulted with the other management of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Agency “as part of good cooperation”?

First of all, Mr. Minister, the money is there – because it was transferred from another envelope already last fall, and specifically from the pool for payments under the support of production-related income for 2023. This amounts to approximately EUR 17 million.

Rates for eco-schemes should not change

Secondly, yes, for some eco-schemes, farmers submitted more applications than the money planned for them. BUT – as we have already informed about it on farmer.pl:

– If the area or number of animals eligible for payments under eco-schemes exceeds the initially assumed amounts, it may be necessary to reduce the previously planned rates. Nevertheless, when determining the rates for eco-schemes, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development plans to use the possibilities provided for in EU law to transfer funds between individual payments so that the actual rates are as close as possible to the planned ones. – the ministry said in a response to the editorial office in December last year.

So why scare farmers with such “problems”?

The culprits were found

Thirdly, Mr. Minister, the problem with paying the fee for eco-schemes comes from – which we also know from the response provided to the editorial office by the Ministry of Agriculture (see the article above) – that there is a lack of “stable, verified data on the area eligible for support”. Simply – ARiMR has not prepared well enough to handle applications in the 2023 campaign. This concerns both the IT system and the pace of carrying out the necessary inspections. And we know this from the position of the Works Committee of NSZZ “Solidarność” of ARiMR Employees – we recommend reading the material below:

But apparently ARiMR is closer than further to defining specific data regarding the area eligible for support under eco-schemes. According to information that appears in the public space, specific rates of subsidies for eco-schemes are to be announced “in the next few days”.

And as we read in the Agency’s next announcement, decisions on the granting of direct payments taking into account eco-scheme area payments will be issued from February 26, 2024, which will allow the payments granted to be made already in the first days of March. Due to the reference periods ending for some animal welfare variants on March 14, 2024, decisions for farmers applying for welfare payments under direct payments (approx. 94 thousand farmers) will be issued in April 2024 and will be implemented on an ongoing basis. withdrawals.

Let us add that, according to the latest data, by January 30, 2024, the Agency for Restructuring and Modernization of Agriculture had paid over PLN 10 billion in subsidies for 2023 – nearly PLN 9.2 billion in the form of advance payments and approximately PLN 950 million in the form of final payments. Of the latter amount, over PLN 603 million are direct payments that went to PLN 500,000. farmers.

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