THE European Union may spend some of its unused 2008 farm budget on loans to small Third World producers to help them buy seeds and fertilisers, Mariann Fischer Boel, the EU Agriculture Commissioner said yesterday.
Ms Fischer Boel said the sums involved would represent a significant share of the EU's farm spend, but the amount available was not immediately clear.
Agriculture eats up more than 40 per cent of the entire EU budget, which for 2008 is planned at
120.7 billion (£96bn).
"We will probably ... not spend our total budget for 2008 because of the fact that we are not spending much money on market measures – export refunds, intervention systems, private storage. We will have funding available," Ms Fischer Boel said.
Offering micro-loans to small producers in developing countries could be both a short and long-term solution that could improve producers' ability to feed themselves and also start trading in local markets, she told a news conference.
"It's difficult to say exactly how we are going to manage it," she said, adding that the European Commission – the EU's executive arm – was working out ways to administer the plan.
"There will be a significant budget available ... it's not peanuts," Ms Fischer Boel said, adding that the plan would be a very efficient way to improve capacity in the agricultural sector in developing countries. "If we don't spend the money, it goes back into the budget and will be redistributed to member states. I think it is an excellent idea: from agriculture to agriculture."
The full article contains 265 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
