The Interventions of the Strategic Plan for Common Agricultural Policy 2023-2027 attracted responses from more than 30,000 farmers.
The estimated amount expected to be paid to beneficiaries for these interventions amounts to €47.8 million.
Beneficiaries have received around €40 million from the beginning of 2023 until today, while payments for specific Measures of the Rural Development Program 2014-2022 continued during 2023.
The European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy is implemented in Cyprus through the Strategic Plan for Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2023-2027, with the total amount of the Plan amounting to €454 million, of which €373 million constitutes a European contribution.
The largest number of applications received by the Cyprus Agricultural Payments Organization in 2023 was for Direct Payments Interventions, with the estimated amount expected to be paid to beneficiaries totaling €47.8 million.
The Intervention for “Basic Income Support for Sustainability” stands out, under which beneficiaries will be supported with a total amount of €31.4 million.
This is an Intervention that constitutes the main tool for supporting agricultural income and aims to make agriculture more profitable, to produce safe, healthy, and economically accessible food, and to reward farmers for caring for the countryside and the environment.
Farmers typically receive income support based on the size of their holdings in hectares.
Also included in the Direct Payments Interventions is the “Supplementary Income Redistribution Support” for which the estimated financial support amounts to €2.8 million.
This specific Intervention aims to adequately support small and medium-sized agricultural holdings, to effectively achieve the goal of income support and, at the same time, to minimize losses for larger agricultural holdings.
Ecological Programs with applications of circular economy principles in agriculture, environmental management of livestock systems, biodiversity conservation, and others also play a significant role in the Strategic Plan for CAP 2023-2027.
Specifically, in 2023, applications were submitted and financial support was provided to beneficiaries for actions included in the Intervention “Ecological Programs for reducing the burden of land and water from chemical plant protection products” with the estimated subsidy reaching €4.4 million.
These are actions concerning the “Implementation of Solarization in open cultivations and greenhouses” and the “Elimination of herbicide use in systematic plantations and scattered trees.”
Additionally, for “Linked support for goats and sheep,” 865 applications were received with the estimated subsidy amounting to €4 million.
