The state will cover 80% of the costs of farmers to install drip irrigation systems and to dig a well as envisaged in the new VMRO-DPMNE program aimed at agricultural development.
The finances will be provided through the program on rural development of agriculture for areas up to 50 hectares. Registered farmers and agricultural companies have the right to apply for the measure, which is intended to be launched in January 2017. EUR 3 million will be singled aside every year.
“This is one of the many projects designed to be part of the new program. Being constantly in touch with farmers’ associations and the farmers themselves, we know very well what the farmers in Macedonia need. The new program is the answer to their problems… It is a program about Macedonia, a country that is prosperous, stable and strong,” the leader of VMRO-DPMNE Nikola Gruevski said on Monday promoting the new measure.
Agriculture, he added, is our strategic priority. “It’s a complex process that requires innovations and upgrading.”
The remaining 20% will have to be covered by the farmers themselves, who can provide funds through a line of credit in amount of EUR 10,8 million of the Macedonian Bank for Development Promotion.
“The systems already installed in Macedonia have demonstrated that yield can be doubled if the drip irrigation is used the right way,” VMRO-DPMNE leader noted adding a yield of 13 tons per hectare on average had been registered so far through a USAID-funded project for drip irrigation systems.
The drip irrigation system was developed in Israel in the 1960s. Since 2010 the system is being used as the main irrigation method in three EU countries, i.e. Cyprus, Malta and Slovenia.