1.5 billion euros for agricultural development

The EU Contributed Rural Development Support (IPARD-III) Program was opened for applications from farmers with its first call. Stating that they will strengthen the investments of farmers in Turkey with a grant of 785 million euros for 7 years, Agriculture and Rural Development Support Institution (TKDK) President Ahmet Antalyalı said, “Our total budget for 2024 is 248 million euros. “The budget of the measure for the processing and marketing of agricultural and fishery products, for which we will receive the first applications, in this first call has been determined as 66 million euros,” he said. Antalyalı, who said that they designed their support according to the livestock road map and planned production model announced by the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry İbrahim Yumaklı, spoke to Yeni Şafak about IPARD-lll supports.

Antalyalı stated that calls for livestock enterprises, development of farm activities and business development sectors will begin as of June. Antalyalı said, “Considering the contribution of farmers and producers in the calls launched, the IPARD-III Program will open the door to 20 thousand jobs in rural areas only in the call periods to be launched in 2024.” Reminding that the supports provided to 42 provinces in the IPARD-II Program were expanded to 81 provinces with IPARD III, Antalyalı stated that in the previous programs, the most interest was in the diversification of plant production and the processing and packaging of herbal products.

Stating that businesses in Konya benefited the most from IPARD- I and II programs, Antalyalı said, “Ankara, Konya, Elazığ, Sivas, Afyonkarahisar and Yozgat benefited the most from IPARD- I. Mersin, Afyonkarahisar, Konya, Elazığ and Diyarbakır benefited from IPARD-II. “Accordingly, Konya with approximately 2.4 billion TL and Elazığ with 2.1 billion TL were the provinces that received the most support,” he said.

One of the sectors receiving the most support in IPARD-I and II is 1,553 milk production facilities with 24.6 percent. After milk production facilities, fattening farms came in third place, followed by poultry meat production facilities with 940 facilities. The sector that received the least support was egg poultry farming, which received only 0.1 percent of the total amount.