EU program saps farmers' enthusiasm

Poland's farming community last week dismissed the European Union's Sapard program, which provides candidate countries with funds for rural and agricultural development and modernization, as a waste of time that will do little to help the country's troubled agricultural sector. The European Commission, the EU's administrative arm, last Tuesday agreed to start the Sapard, or Special Accession Program for Agricultural and Rural Development, scheme in Poland after reaching a consensus with its government about managing the funding. Poland's Agency for Restructuring and Modernization of Agriculture (AMiMR), the government body that will oversee the program, will start accepting applications on July 17. The Sapard program requires farmers to put up 100% of the cost for their agricultural improvement projects and later refunds 50% of the money. But farmers argue that since many lack such funds to begin with and have poor credit ratings, the program's money will go unused. "Sapard was pitched as something that would improve rural Poland, but now farmers are very disillusioned with it," said Jolanta Mackiewicz of the Olsztyn-based Warmińsko-Mazurskie Agriculture Chamber. "Sapard will only help big rich farmers. It won't help small farmers since they won't be able to afford it." Many farmers had already dismissed the funds as unobtainable before the program's launch, said Władysław Serafin, the president of the National Association of Farmers and Farmers Organizations (KZRKiOR), a union with more than a million members. "Politicians need the scheme to be successful and to prove themselves to the EU," he said. "The farmers' needs don't appear to matter. It's just a way for the politicians to say they gave the farmers all these golden opportunities."

Polish government officials have battled with European Commission representatives since October 2000 to try to reach an agreement on the scheme's administrative requirements and to show them that the AMiMR is competent to oversee the program. But even some farmers who were optimistic about the Sapard program have shied away, put off not only by its financial terms, but also by its complicated 50-page application and other requirements. Mariusz Boliszewski, who owns a 2,000 square-meter specialized poultry farm in the Warmińsko-Mazurskie voivodship, had hoped to use the funds to modernize his facilities but is now reconsidering. "I am outraged at last week's announcement," Boliszewski said. "There is simply no way I can afford it … And I doubt any other farmers will be able to afford it either." Farmers have also complained about the scheme's qualification requirements that they must be under 50 years of age, own their farms and have a certain level of education in agriculture. Others have raised complaints about the program's mandate that a farm's actual output should not increase after modernization, but still must satisfy all EU standards and regulations, said Mackiewicz, who answered the queries of worried farmers on a radio call-in show last week. Farmers also cannot use the funds to change what they produce and must maintain a specific quality of produce, she said. "Farmers had lots of hope and waited for (Sapard) for years, and now it appears that many can't use it and are generally very disillusioned," Mackiewicz said. Agriculture Minister Jarosław Kalinowski said it would be a tough challenge for Polish farmers to fully exploit the funds, pointing to other EU candidate countries, including Latvia, Bulgaria and Lithuania, which have already started the scheme and have collectively used only 3.6% of their allocated funding. But Kalinowski said he was confident that Poland would be far more successful. To help farmers, the Polish government has arranged special agreements with banks, including Bank Ochrony Środowiska, Bank Gospodarki ŻywnoŚciowej and Bank Gospodarki Krajowego, to issue credits with a maximum 10% interest rate to those who apply for the Sapard funds, he said.

The government estimates that up to 600 food-processing companies and 17,000 farms could potentially benefit from the scheme. But KZRKiOR's Serafin warned that there would be only enough money for every other gmina, or local government, to exploit and that a good portion of the funds would be consumed by high administrative costs for processing cumbersome paperwork. To date, Poland has spent about zł. 50 million ($12.5 million) on implementing the Sapard scheme, according to Aleksander Bentkowski, the AMiMR's president. Since October 2000, Sapard has set aside up to €520 million in funding for Polish farmers who will have to use the funds by Dec. 31, 2003, or lose them. Poland expects to join the EU in 2004.