Agriculture, EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Funds, Latvia

The Rural Support Service's financing will be provided to 60,000 farmers in Latvia this year. Of this amount, EUR 206 million will be disbursed as financing from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and EUR 314.4 mln in various forms of aid financed by the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund.

In turn, EUR 15 mln will be paid to Latvian farmers this year from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund, while EUR 38 mln will be paid as state aid.

According to Krumins, farmers will be able to apply for area payments earlier this year than in 2019. Applications for the 2020 area payments will be accepted from the beginning of March instead of April as in 2019, and until June 15.

Krumins also said that the Rural Support Service was actively working on new technologies, including satellite imagery for risk analysis. The service also actively surveys agricultural land by publishing areas of uncultivated agricultural land online.

The service is also planning to launch a hotline for farmers that will be working outside office hours and be available to the service's customers from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Last year, the Rural Support Service paid EUR 571 mln in support for farmers, which is 5.1% less than in 2018 when the total amount paid was EUR 602 mln.