It is necessary to promote the attraction of finance and reduce the bureaucratic burden on Latvian agriculture.

On October 29th, Riga will host The European Commission and the European Investment Bank organized a seminar to discuss the challenges of implementing the Rural Development Programme, the achievements so far, as well as the use of various financial instruments for agricultural development. The challenges facing Latvian farmers were presented by Maira Dzelzkalēja, Deputy Chairwoman of the Association "Farmers' Council" (ZSA).

In his address to the audience, including high-level EU and Latvian officials, M.Dzelzkalėja highlighted the needs and challenges of Latvian farmers in the near future – adapting agricultural production to European Union (EU) standards, returning agricultural land to production, and promoting cooperation between farmers. M.Dzelzkalėja also pointed out the need to provide sufficient support to emerging rural entrepreneurs, which is currently significantly hampered by the lack of a specific definition of what a young farmer is and the lack of project co-financing instruments.

M.Dzelzkalėja: One of the main topics of today's conference and the discussions taking place within it is the need to improve the efficiency and flexibility of state institutions, as well as reduce bureaucracy. Simplification of processes was one of the most important objectives before the previous reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Unfortunately, in reality we see that it has not been possible to fulfill this, but it is very important for all farmers and entrepreneurs. Also, when thinking about the further development of the agricultural sector, it is important to look at attracting finance more broadly than usual, stimulating the entry of private resources in the form of investment, similar to what is already happening in other business sectors. Within the framework of the Rural Development Plan, there will never be enough money for everyone, so we need to work on diversifying financial instruments.

The conference will be attended by European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Phil Hogan, Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Latvia Jānis Dūklavs, teams from the European Commission, the European Investment Bank and local experts.