The Director of ASFARD, Mr. Nikica Bachovski together with the Prime Minister, Mr. Dimitar Kovachevski and the Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Ljupco Nikolovski today in Sveti Nikole presented the Decisions for purchase of tractors to the farmers in the Ovchepolie region.

Today's event is part of presenting the first 730 Decisions to support farmers in purchase of tractors. Such Decision have already been presented to the farmers in Bitola and Prilep.

"The four Public Calls which have been announced last year, including the Public Call for allocation of funds for purchase of tractors, have had record interest thus far. To us, this means that the farmers have put their trust in the sincere commitments of the Government to help and improve the farming, through all the mechanisms at our disposal. This financial support is from the state budget, as well as funding by the IPARD Programs, through which we create modern, contemporary, profitable, competitive Macedonian agriculture. The government financial support to the farmers in this case, for purchase of tractors, is in a form of co-financing, up to 75 percent of the value of the tractor. However, being open to the suggestions by the farmers, this year we have also created a new measure to support development of a business plan. Through Public Call, the farmer has the opportunity to receive support up to 10,000 euros to modernize its production, choosing what and when to invest. Through responsible work approach of the Government, which for the first time since the independence of the country has placed agriculture, together with energy among the priority development activities, we have achieved a series of concrete results", said the Prime Minister Kovacevski.

At the event, the Minister Nikolovski spoke about the support of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management for the modernization of Macedonian agriculture.

"As a Ministry and Government, all these years, we have set a clear goal, modernization and development of Macedonian agriculture. We have been working diligently all these years in the realization of this goal. We have been creating specific measures to support the farmers for modernizing their production. The modernization of the Macedonian agriculture, in addition to this call for the purchase of tractors, is realized through the support for the purchase of silos, then through the support in the construction of dairies, support for the purchase of equipment for the production of tobacco, the purchase of specialized harvesters and rice dryers, or drip irrigation systems," said Minister Nikolovski.

At the event, which was attended by farmers and representatives of domestic suppliers of agricultural machinery, Director Bachovski informed about the implemented procedure in relation to the measure.

"Through these events, today in Sveti Nikole, and earlier in Bitola and Prilep, we provided financial support in the form of Decisions for 730 farmers. The Agency ha allocated 500 million denars from the Rural Development program. In the past period, the Agency actively worked on implementation of the Programs for Direct Payments and Payment of Subsidies, the implementation of the intervention fund as well as the preparations for the new IPARD 3 Programming Period, which comes as a new opportunity for the modernization of agricultural holdings, processing facilities and rural environments, said the Director of ASFARD, Bachovski.