Promoting village shops, helping with reforestation and reducing bureaucracy for farmers – the federal and state agriculture ministers were more united in Oberhof than they have been for a long time.
Companies affected by African swine fever can now receive financial aid. The Agricultural Pension Bank has launched a liquidity aid program for this purpose, said Federal Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir (Greens) after consultations with his colleagues from the states in Oberhof, Thuringia. The federal government is guaranteeing this. At the autumn meeting of the agriculture ministers, further steps were decided to reduce bureaucracy in agriculture, promote new village shops and provide stable financing for the reforestation of damaged forests.
Many federal states affected by swine fever
“The latest outbreaks show that we must not let up in our joint efforts to combat the spread of the animal disease,” said Özdemir. The impact on affected livestock farmers and the entire pig farming sector in Germany is immense. The minister thanked the states for their efforts to contain the disease. Hesse, Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate are now affected. But this also applies to Brandenburg, Saxony, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony.
Özdemir said he had also asked Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) to ensure that there were functioning wild boar barriers along the highways. African swine fever was first detected in Germany in Brandenburg in 2020. It is incurable for wild and domestic pigs and is almost always fatal, the ministry explained. It is harmless to humans and other animal species – even if you eat the meat of infected animals.
Further steps in reducing bureaucracy
In response to the farmers’ protests at the beginning of the year, the agriculture ministers also took further steps to reduce regulations and documentation requirements. Steps to simplify animal husbandry, fertilization and construction measures close to farms were proposed, which the federal government should implement as a priority, said the chair of the Agriculture Ministers’ Conference, Susanna Karawanskij (Left Party). The federal government has promised to suspend the so-called electricity balancing. Farmers must document exactly when and where they put certain substances into the soil. “We agree that reducing bureaucracy is a permanent task,” said Karawanskij.
Money demanded for reforestation
Thuringia’s Minister of Agriculture called on the federal government on behalf of her colleagues to pay out the funding for combating forest dieback quickly this year and to secure it in the coming years. On the sidelines of the conference, Karawanskij spoke out against planned cuts in forest climate research. This threatened to eliminate research projects that are important for the reforestation of damaged areas and forest conversion, among other things, she told the German Press Agency. According to her, the federal government’s draft budget foresees cuts of around 30 million euros in forest climate research. This should be corrected.
Promote village shops
The agriculture ministers agreed that the decline in shops in rural areas must be stopped and local supplies secured. “In the past 30 years, around three quarters of the mostly small shops in the villages have disappeared. We must do something about this,” said Karawanskij. Investment aid for village shops must also be available in the future from the joint agricultural subsidy, demanded Saarland Agriculture Minister Petra Berg (SPD), among others. This also includes 24-hour shops that can be used with special chip cards.
Source: Stern
