The
CAP Strategic Plan will provide support in the form of direct payments and investments.
This plan will cover the entire
territory of the Maltese Islands and will provide funding and support from 2023
till 2027 taking into account national policies affecting agricultural and
rural areas.Resources under the CAP Strategic Plan
emanate from the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) and the European
Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD). Foreseen interventions will
aim to contribute towards three general objectives: to foster a resilient and
diversified agricultural sector; ensuring long-term food security, strengthening
environmental protection, climate action and the socio-economic fabric of rural
areas.
With a total allocated budget (EU +
MT) of € 166 Million, the interventions of the CAP Strategic Plan will contribute
towards addressing the nine specific objectives and a cross cutting objective considering
lessons learnt and national policies amongst others. The objectives are as
follows:
1.
support
viable farm income and resilience of the agricultural sector across the Union
2.
enhance
market orientation and increase farm competitiveness through technology and digitalisation
3.
improve
the farmers’ position in the value chain
4.
contribute
to climate change mitigation and adaptation
5.
foster
sustainable development and efficient management of natural resources
6.
contribute
to halting and reversing biodiversity loss
7.
attracting
and sustaining young farmers and new farmers and facilitate sustainable business
development in rural areas
8.
promote
employment, growth, gender equality
9.
improve
the response of Union agriculture to societal demands on food and health,
including high-quality, safe, and nutritious food produced in a sustainable way
Cross cutting objective: Modernising agriculture through the
sharing of knowledge, innovation and digitalisation in agriculture and rural
areas.
The CAP Strategic Plan will support
farmers and contribute towards food security and environmental and climate
objectives. Resources will be mobilised to provide improved basic income
support rates for farmers (€15.6mn), continue the provision of coupled income
support (€15mn), schemes for young farmers (€8mn), small farmers (€2.4mn) and
measures supporting the shift towards more ecological agricultural methods (€10mn).
Such initiatives will be coupled with investments to improve farm resilience, new
technologies, digitalisation, smart and improved irrigation systems (€21.3mn),
incentives for organic farming practices (€2.3mn), and animal welfare (€1mn),
amongst others. Measures fostering, slurry management and wastewater networks (€31mn),
knowledge and exchanges and training for farmers (€4.3mn), as well as measures
related to improve and foster apiculture practices (€141,000) are also
foreseen.
The approved CAP Strategic Plan for Malta 2023-2027 may be found here.