Government Aims to Create Special Fund for Agricultural Cultures

Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development Minister Besian Mustafa has declared that they are working on the 2020-23 governing programme to have the fund that would provide agricultural cultures, until it has shown that through development programmes, farmers will be able to benefit from the 53m-euro fund.

Minister Mustafa for Kosovo Press has said this fund would help farmers in Kosovo realise agricultural insurance.

“We as the minister of agriculture have part of the 2020-23 governing programme, to establish a fund for agricultural culture security, are working intensively towards this fund. The Ministry of Agriculture has not had such a fund so far. We are currently working with donors, legally and financially, to build a stable financial fund that helps Kosovo farmers realise agricultural insurance”, he says.

Mustafa has added that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has announced two development programmes, stressing that it includes the 18-month grant programme for this year's 6 months and the 12 months of next year, as well as the programme for paying subsidies for this year, which is 24m euros.

Mustafa said that a 3.1m-euro fund for damages compensation has been allocated, and if it is not enough, then it will be required by the Kosovo Assembly for this fund to increase.

The Ministry of Agriculture announced two development programmes a few weeks ago. The programme for rural development, as it is known in the daily language, the 18-month grant programme for this year's 6 months, and the 12 months of next year, worth over 29m euros, and the programme for fines or payments of subsidies for 24m euros this year - a total of 53m euros. We also have 3.1m euros earmarked for damages compensation, of course this is the first year the Ministry of Agriculture has a separate fund for compensation for damages caused by natural disasters. We will see if this fund is enough, if not, we will apply from the Parliament of the Republic of Kosovo that this Agriculture Ministry fund will grow to cover a large part of the damage caused by natural disasters to Kosovar farmers”, he says.

While the head of the Kosovo Agricultural Union, Tahir Tahiri, has said past governments have had an agreement with banks in Kosovo for the security of agricultural cultures, but that agreement does not include fire security, hail and flooding.

The next resource to compensate farmers is insurance. There's a deal with Government, with some banks... However, I have some data that doesn't provide all cultures and are not provided by the hail, fire, and floods”, he said.

And for that, Minister Mustafa has said he is not aware of such an agreement.

I'm not really aware of such an agreement”, he says.

Otherwise, a large portion of farmers across Kosovo have been damaged as a result of recent rainfall.