Parliamentary Secretary for the EU Presidency 2017 and EU Funds Ian Borg announced a sub-measure aimed at supporting young farmers – an allocation of €4.3M – out of which around 60 young farmers are expected to benefit.
Dr Borg highlighted that the Government has long felt the need to support young Maltese farmers precisely due to lack of people working in farms. In fact, in Malta 70% of the full time farmers recorded are over the age of 40.
Young farmers frequently need support and incentives to enter into agricultural activity due to several barriers such as difficulties in acquiring land because of the high costs of either purchasing or renting, fragmentation of land and difficulties in obtaining loans for business investment through regular commercial channels, he said.
Parliamentary Secretary Borg explained that in order to counter the mentioned barriers, this call, with an allocation of €4.3 million is particularly intended to focus on a younger generation of farmers which are open to new ideas, innovation in production and marketing and/or investment in new processes.
“A significant numbers of young people have already attended agricultural courses in Malta, however due to limited financial returns only a few eventually entered the world of farming and became professional farmers, ” said Dr Borg.
“This measure is a key element to encourage young farmers’ involvement in a more attractive, innovative and efficient sector in the future and will thus serve as a source of economy growth.” concluded Parliamentary Secretary Borg.
Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Animal Rights Roderick Galdes said that this measure is important to attract young farmers to the sector especially due to the fact that the numbers of young farmers at present is continually decreasing.
He continued to add that we have to offer a helping hand to young farmers who are being faced with multiple difficulties such as a high price for rent of land and difficulties in obtaining a loan.
Parliamentary Secretary Roderick Galdes also said that young farmers are important for the agricultural sector because it is them who offer new ideas to the sector. These new ideas are needed in order to innovate the sector and making it more competitive.
This measure will be complementing the four measures announced earlier last year, which will bring the total amount of budget on agriculture announced under RDP 14-20 to a value of around €69 million.
More information can be accessed on www.eufunds@gov.mt [1], by email to rdd.meaim@gov.mt [2] or tel. 2200 1108.
Photograph by Alain Salvary