State to increase support of animal, vegetable production

Prague, Jan 21 (CTK) - The Czech Agriculture Ministry wants to give more support to the declining segment of animal production and to fruit and vegetable growing in the future, according to a draft strategy of Czech agriculture and food production after 2014, presented by Agriculture Minister Petr Bendl Monday.

The ministry also wants to motivate farmers to use land and water in a better way, and to create more jobs in rural areas, Bendl (Civic Democrats, ODS) told journalists.

Implementation of priorities should be supported by the setting of rules for subsidy payments in the next programming period.

"A subsidy should be a positive impulse leading to good business performance, not a farmer's goal," Bendl said.

Fulfilment of the strategy will depend mainly of agricultural and food producing companies, However, the state should put them in a useful direction with the help of the setting of the subsidy policy, according to Bendl.

Czech agriculture should focus mainly on ensuring permanent food security at a national as well as European level in the future, according to the strategy.

This means self-sufficiency should range from at least 70 to 90 percent for individual commodities. Self-sufficiency in pork and vegetables, for example, is below this level Monday, Bendl said.

The change in the setting of subsidies, proposed by the ministry, aims to force farmers to focus on animal production more than they do Monday and not to be involved only in less demanding crop production.

It should also motivate farmers to grow fruit and vegetables, and alternate the grown crop plants suitably.

Agriculture should also generate renewable sources of energy within the set energy mix, the strategy says.

By setting rules of control and a system of subsidies, the Agriculture Ministry wants, for example, to motivate farmers to fight against erosion by which a large area of soil is endangered.

For the food industry, the strategy proposes advantages for projects using innovations and support to projects promoting regional specialities.

Like in agriculture, subsidies should go to projects creating sustainable jobs. The document also deals with other topics such as support to generation replacement of aging agricultural population and organic farming.

Bendl started a discussion about the strategy with experts Monday. The discussion should last six months at most. He also wants to discuss the document with opposition deputies in the lower house.

Non-governmental organisations are to send their comments to the ministry by February 15. Bendl does not rule out that he will submit the document to the government for approval after the discussion is over.

The new Common Agricultural Policy of the European Unions is to take effect as of 2014, and talks about its form will culminate in the months to come.

The European Commission presented the draft of the policy's reform in October 2011, but the proposal did not meet with very much enthusiasm from Czech farmers and state representatives.

According to the Czech government, some measures contained in the proposal run counter the efforts to make agricultural policy fairer, more transparent and less bureaucratic.

The Czech Republic objects mainly to the proposal under which 30 percent of payments would be tied to observing strick environmental rules, as this would mean that Czech farmers would have to let around 250,000 hectares of land lie fallow.

Bendl also said without elaborating Monday that the long-term strategy of business operation of state-run forest management company Lesy Ceske republiky is to be updated in the first half of this year.