The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry said that 1,768 applications for agricultural subsidies of over 339 million lei were recorded in the first five months of this year. The value of the asked subsidies is by over 200 million lei higher than in 2013, IPN reports.

According to a communiqué of the Ministry, in the period there were signed 762 contracts for the provision of financial assistance and accepted applications for subsidies of 107 million lei.

Owing to the support provided to farmers from the agriculture subsidization fund, the areas of vineyards were extended to about 422 ha. There were planted mainly such sorts of grapes as Moldova (55% of the areas), Sauvignon (16%), Muscat (9%), and Arcadia (7%). Greenhouses were renovated and built on an area of 8 ha.

The farmers also used the subsidies to purchase 1,095 pieces of agricultural machinery. There were reequipped and modernized 40 animal-breeding farms, including 15 cattle farms, nine poultry farms, seven bee-keeping farms, six big farms, and three ship farms. Within Measure No. 7 “Stimulation of the purchase of purebred animals and maintaining of the genetic stock”, there were bought 4,963 animals.

From numeric and value viewpoints, most of the agricultural subsidies were used by small and medium-sized producers.