The energy crisis is causing problems for German farmers. The first state aid should arrive on the farms this month. Businesses can get up to 15,000 euros without the hassle of paperwork, promises Minister Özdemir.
Almost 42,000 farms that have been hit particularly hard by the sharp rise in energy costs are receiving state aid of up to 15,000 euros each. “This month, around 135 million euros will arrive on the farms,” ??assured Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir. A total of 180 million euros are planned – around 135 million for so-called adjustment grants and around 45 million euros for small grants.
Businesses that received a so-called greening premium for certain sustainable farming methods in 2021 are eligible. According to the Greens politician, the farmers receive the adjustment aid “quite unbureaucratically, without tiresome paperwork or application procedures”.
For money from the small aid program, on the other hand, applications are required due to EU legal requirements – they can probably be made from October. According to the ministry, 3,800 companies will receive the maximum amount of 15,000 euros from the adjustment subsidy program. The money is paid out by the social insurance for agriculture, forestry and horticulture.
The spokeswoman for the Greens parliamentary group for food and agriculture, Renate Künast, explained that fruit and vegetable farms received almost 30 percent of the payments; 43 percent of the money went to sow farmers and around 25 percent to pig and turkey farmers. “Many of them have been threatened in recent years by the collapsing markets in the Corona crisis. Without this help, many companies would be on the verge of collapse.”
In view of the energy crisis, the German Farmers’ Association called for the establishment of a national reserve for fertilizers. The availability of fertilizer is essential to secure yields, said association president Joachim Rukwied of the Düsseldorf “Rheinische Post”. Without the particularly important nitrogen fertilizer, “yields would immediately drop by 30 to 40 percent”. The federal government must therefore recognize “that fertilizers are also systemically important,” Rukwied continued. As a result of the war in the Ukraine, fertilizer prices had risen drastically – and now there are the high gas prices, because “we need gas to produce the important nitrogen fertilizer,” said the farmer’s president.
