Romanian farmers request subsidies for 8.4 million ha

Romanian farmers submitted over 820,000 requests for European subsidies for 8.4 million hectares of agriculture land by June 15. The requests went down compared to last year, when they amounted to 980,000 and covered 9.5 million ha. Removing the subsidies for fallow land or plots that belong to military units led to this decrease, reports local Agerpres. Last year, the average area for which farmers requested subventions amounted to 9.66 ha per farmer, whereas this year, it rose to 10.21 ha per farmer, said Mihai Putintei, general director of Romania's Agency for Payments and Intervention in Agriculture (APIA). The small farmers have submitted less requests compared to last year, Putintei added. editor@romania-insider.com