Agriculture Ministry Allots NIS 30 Million to Aid Farmers
In recent news, Oded Forer, the agriculture minister, belonging to Yisrael Beitenu, made an announcement pertaining to showing support to farmers in the State of Israel. He revealed that his office is coming up with plans to allocate no less than NIS 30 million to these hard workers to help them transition to relatively more innovative and efficient agricultural machinery and technology. As per the relevant personnel at the Agriculture Ministry, the initial NIS 20 million will be allocated towards encouraging farmers to opt for more advanced and recent technologies. Moreover, special emphasis will be laid upon those particular technologies that are not currently available in the Jewish state. These will also include other technologies that were being imported for the farmers in the last three years.
Where the rest of the NIS 10 million is concerned, it will be used to encourage the many farmers in the country to implement automation techniques, use new technologies, and purchase advanced machinery, in order to ensure that they are well-equipped to set up a newer system on their farms. After announcing this new plan, Forer went on to talk about how innovation is one of the primary ways to ensure that the State of Israel is able to fulfil its agricultural potential and implement Israeli technology in the sector. In his words, new innovation is going to allow farmers to bring about an increase in production of every dunam and reduce their consequent expenditures.
According to the agriculture minister, he and his team believe that it is vital to raise production in the country and help the farmers advance. This plan was announced after the government noticed agriculture workers starting protests every now and then since the month of July. These protests were against an outline of the government, which revealed its plan to boost competition in the relevant industry. The Agriculture Ministry had initially decided to increase its product offerings in the market and reduce the prices of eggs, vegetables, and fruits for the average consumer by eventually decreasing tariffs on all vegetables and fruits.
The original plan devised by the Agriculture Ministry was supposed to be five years long and consist of a wide support package to ensure that the agriculture industry in the country was not crippled. This plan included a focused direct budget, which supported every farmer as per the cultivated dunam. The budget also made space for relief of the egg industry and the expansion of tax benefits to boost capital investment. In addition, incentives were provided for those complying with the marketing standards set for local produce, thereby reducing the costs incurred by farmers for inputs. These costs were calculated to go down by more than NIS 2 billion and boost productivity by a significant number in the agriculture industry in the Jewish state.
The plan devised earlier further stipulated that the government would be providing grants to a wide number of farmers to help them acquire new equipment. In addition, the agriculture ministry hoped to encourage collaborations with numerous start-ups across the country.
