Background information

The Cyprus Agriculture Payments Organization (CAPO) provides emergency financial support to farmers affected by the pandemic COVID-19. The legal base of the Scheme is the Rural Development Programme 2014-2020 and the EU regulations 1305/2013, 2020/872, 2020/1009 & 808/2020. The decision was taken by the Cabinet Council of Ministers within the frame of the state measures for the support of the economy and the agriculture sector, in specific.

Content of measure

The eligible sectors defined by the Scheme are the following five:

1. vegetables, herbs and strawberries
2. watermelon cultivations
3. olive cultivations
4. permanent crops
5. viticulture.

Eligible persons to participate in the Scheme for the sector 1-3 are legal or natural persons that have submitted an application into the ‘Single Crops Area Payment Scheme’ of CAPO for the year 2020 and are professional farmers fulfilling one of the following:

• natural or legal person registered in the Farmers and Agricultural Holdings registry
• legal person registered in the Social Insurances Fund registry as a farmer before 01/01/2019
• legal person registered in the Social Insurances Fund registry as an employer in the farming sector before 01/01/2019
• natural person under 41 years of age during the submission of the application and registered in the Social Insurances Fund registry exclusively as a farmer before the 1 March 2020

For the sectors 4 & 5, eligible are legal or natural persons that have submitted an application into the ‘Single Crops Area Payment Scheme’ of CAPO for the year 2020.

The Scheme provides that area payments shall be granted per hectare and the maximum grand per participant is €7,000.

However, the Scheme distributes the available budget based on the needs of each sector as follows:

• vegetables, herbs and strawberries budget €650,000
• watermelon cultivations budget €250,000
• olive cultivations budget €50,000
• permanent crops budget €2.2 million
• viticulture budget €500,000

Use of measure

Currently, there is no information on the number of persons eligible to receive payments.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Does not apply to workers	Sector specific set of companies SMEs	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government	European Funds National funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Informed	Informed
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• No involvement
• Main level of involvement: Sectoral or branch level

Involvement

The Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment and Cyprus Agriculture Payments Organization hold informed meetings with the Agricultural Organizations. The representatives of the organizations submitted their proposals and opinions about the supporting agricultural schemes. However, the level of involvement of these organizations in the designing of the particular Scheme is not known.

Views and reactions

The Scheme is supported by most agriculture organizations. The General Secretary of the Pancyprian Farmers Union (PEK), Michalis Lytras, during a press conference mentioned that the Scheme will not resolve all of the problems of the agriculture sector but will address the current needs of farmers during the pandemic.

Sectors and occupations

Sources

• 01 November 2020: Έκτακτη προσωρινή στήριξη στους γεωργούς και στις μμε που πλήττονται ιδιαίτερα από την κρίση της πανδημίας COVID-19 (www.capo.gov.cy)