Nghe An: Still lacking 20 billion VND to support agricultural machinery for farmers

(Baonghean.vn) - Nghe An has a policy to support people in purchasing agricultural machinery. However, due to lack of funds, it has not met people's needs.

Yen Thanh farmers invest in rice harvesters. Photo: Xuan Hoang

Mr. Nguyen Van Duong - Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Yen Thanh district said: In 2016, the estimated budget for price and freight subsidies allocated by the Provincial People's Committee at the beginning of the year to Yen Thanh district was 650 million VND, while the implementation of the policy according to regulations that households have implemented is nearly 2.6 billion VND with 26 machines. The remaining budget is nearly 2 billion VND that has not been supplemented by the Provincial People's Committee.

In the first 8 months of 2017, households bought 23 machines, the subsidy policy is estimated at more than 2 billion VND, but the remaining funding gap is more than 1 billion VND.

Thus, in Yen Thanh district alone, there is still a shortage of more than 3 billion VND in support for households according to the prescribed policy.

In Dien Chau, Mr. Le The Hieu - Head of the district's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said: In 2016, farmers bought machines with a support budget of more than 3 billion VND, but the province only provided more than 1.7 billion VND. In 2017, the support amount according to the policy was up to 3.5 billion VND, but the province only provided 1.2 billion VND.

Mr. Nguyen Van Lap - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said that in the past time, the Department has actively advised the Provincial People's Committee to arrange increased support funding over the years to buy agricultural machinery according to the provisions of Decision 87/2014/QD-UBND dated November 17, 2014 for the people in a timely manner. Specifically: In 2016, it was more than 10.7 billion VND, in 2017, it was more than 17.7 billion VND.

However, recently, especially after implementing the land consolidation work according to Directive 08-CT of the Provincial Party Committee, people's demand for agricultural machinery has increased, so the support budget according to the policy has not been able to meet it.

In that situation, in August 2017, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development coordinated with the Department of Finance to advise the Provincial People's Committee to allocate additional funding for the districts of VND 6 billion 210 million, of which Yen Thanh district received VND 450 million. Up to now, the funding for agricultural machinery support is still about VND 20 billion short of the actual amount./.

Pearl