AFIR (Romanian Rural Investment Agency) informs that it has published the Applicant's Guide and the annexes related to the DR 20-Animal Husbandry-Livestock Growth program.

The DR 20 program - "Investments in the zootechnical sector" aims to:

• Strengthen market orientation and increase the competitiveness of agricultural farms, both in the short and long term, including enhancing focus on research, technology, and digitization.
• Modernize the sector by stimulating and sharing knowledge, promoting innovation and digitization in agriculture and rural areas, and encouraging the adoption of these measures.

Objectives:

The support provided by this measure will contribute to:

• Improving the overall performance of livestock farms by increasing animal populations and diversifying species.
• Restructuring and modernizing livestock farms, improving the efficient use of resources, and accessing digital technologies.
• Producing and using energy from renewable sources, circular bioeconomy, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
• Compliance with applicable community standards for all types of investments.
• Increasing the added value of agricultural products by processing products at the farm level.

Beneficiaries:

• Farmers, excluding individuals.
• Agricultural cooperatives and cooperative societies that serve the interests of member farmers.
• Groups and producer organizations established based on the current national legislation and recognized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADR) serving the interests of their members.

Non-refundable support:

The maximum value of public support is €2,000,000 per project, and for projects exclusively involving the purchase of agricultural machinery and equipment, the maximum value of public support is €300,000 per project.

The intensity of non-refundable public support, relative to eligible costs per project, is a maximum of 65% of eligible costs.