Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Milva Ekonomi, during a Q&A session held on Thursday with farmers interested in the application procedures for tax-free oil support scheme for agriculture, said that “farmers can apply for Support Scheme 2021 which includes the same measures as last year with zero documents. ”

Application for the National Schemes 2021 will be open until the first week of April, while last year 17 thousand farmers benefited from the National Schemes 2020.

The National Scheme finances 7 measures: Measure 1: basic herding matriculated. Measure 2: Beekeeping. Measure 3: Financing for thermal plastic replacement. Measure 4: Planting of medicinal and aromatic plants. Measure 5: Support for organic farms. Measure 6: Global Gap Certification. Measure 7: Invest in agri-tourism and get 50% financing.

Ekonomi said that, “although 2020 was a year like no other due to pandemic-induced restrictions, agriculture managed to be an important engine of the country’s economy increasing production and expanding exports to 75 European markets and beyond. It is your merit that the agricultural production in Albania increased and is becoming more and more competitive in the markets. ”

“If in 2017 the export / import ratio was 1 / 3.6, today it is 1 / 2.3. This success of agriculture is also attributed to government support. Today, thanks to investments in irrigation infrastructure, we have 255 ha of arable agricultural land that has access to irrigation, while the greenhouse areas have increased to 1,700 ha with a complete production cycle, “- said the Minister.

Ekonomi stressed that, the government has supported agriculture and directly farmers through National Schemes,
IPARD program and the latest novelty, tax- free oil scheme.

According to her, extension of application deadline for tax-free oil from February 25 to March 30, 2021, creates more application opportunities for farmers who are rushing to obtain NIPT, which is a pre-condition to benefit from this measure.
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