Slovakia Spends 1 percent of GDP on Agriculture and Rural Development

Bratislava, December 18 (TASR) - Slovakia's expenditures on agriculture, forestry, fisheries and rural development from public funds stand at 1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and are above the EU average, with 70 percent of the money in agriculture coming from EU funds and most of it being used for direct payments to farmers, TASR learnt on Tuesday. This information came from the results of an ongoing review of agricultural spending prepared by the Value for Money Unit in cooperation with the Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry's Agricultural Policy Institute. According to the report, the Agriculture Ministry's expenditures in 2018 amounted to €1.1 billion, which is around 1.2 percent of GDP and 3.2 percent of total public expenditures. As of 2019, the Government will allocate €30 million a year to primary agricultural production, while revenues from a special levy for retail chains of €73 million will be used to support the sector systematically. Slovakia is dominated by large farms that are demanding in terms of land and capital but not labour. "The average size of a farm in Slovakia is among the largest in the EU, and large farms manage almost all land in Slovakia," reads the report, adding that the largest 20 percent of farms in Slovakia cultivate 94 percent of the land. The average for the EU as a whole is 82 percent. Less than 4 percent of farms produce up to 75 percent of total production in the sector. The land market is also characterised by fragmented ownership, which hampers investments. The report further states that added value in agriculture per hectare of land is low. This is due to the structure of agricultural production in Slovakia, dominated as it is by low added-value production (cereals, oil-based crops). am/df