The Regional Secretary for Agriculture and Forestry announced today an amendment to PROAMAF, a programme designed to support the modernisation of the agricultural and forestry sector in order to "increase the amount of subsidised investment in the electrification of farms."
 
According to João Ponte, the current amount of three thousand Euros will increase to 15 thousand Euros, which will allow "many farmers to benefit from this support measure in order to speed up the electrification of their farms."
 
"This was an old aspiration of agricultural associations and we were able to meet this expectation," said João Ponte.
 
The Secretary for Agriculture spoke on the sidelines of the opening of an agricultural road on Faial. He also stressed the approval of an amendment to SAFIAGRI III at the last Council of the Government in order to increase the volume of subsidised loan from 80 million to 140 million Euros. This line of credit was established to reduce the monthly charges of farms.
 
"This will allow many applications that were left out in the first phase to be analysed and approved so that we may also support the interests of investments made in the modernisation of the agricultural sector," said the Regional Secretary.
 
For João Ponte, "this is another measure implemented with the Government's own funds, being also an important contribution to help farmers at a time of generalised income drop due to the European and international situation."