BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 7
Trend:
As part of state benefits, 1,300 units of farming equipment were sold to 638 farmers in Azerbaijan from the beginning of 2020 through May 1, Chairman of the Agrarian Credit and Development Agency under the Ministry of Agriculture Mirza Aliyev told Trend.
For the acquisition of this equipment, the agency issued preferential loans worth 7.7 million manat ($4.5 million) to farmers.
“As known, about 80 percent of farmers work at small and medium-sized family farms. They use a total of 230,000 hectares of land. These farmers' access to finance is mainly carried out in the form of government subsidies, soft loans and commercial loans provided by various banks. If we look at the big picture, we will see that the loan portfolio is about 60 million manat [$35.2 million] in this area, and farmers in this category are given subsidies in the amount of 40-45 million manat [$23.5 million - $26.4 million] depending on the year. But we also see that our farmers need additional funds. This need can be met with the help of new financial instruments,” he noted.
“Since the beginning of 2020, we have paid citizens over 18 million manat [$10.5 million] of subsidies to purchase equipment. In addition, an electronic subsidy system has been launched that allows the farmer to easily receive government support. Using all these opportunities creates conditions for expanding farms,” the agency’s chairman said.
On April 14, 2020, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on the allocation of funds to improve the provision of microcredit to agricultural producers during the coronavirus pandemic and beyond.
According to the decree, for the provision of non-guarantee loans in the agricultural sector in order to meet the needs of agricultural producers for financial resources in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and in the subsequent period, 30 million manat ($17.6 million) are allocated from the country’s Presidential Reserve Fund to the Agrarian Credit and Development Agency under the Ministry of Agriculture