More money for farmers, livestock keepers and officials - what brings the agrarians a new budget for 2018?

The adoption of this document in the first reading provides for instructing the Cabinet to prepare a draft law on the state budget for 2018 for the second reading, taking into account the conclusions and people's deputies.

If we consider the draft of the current budget in terms of financing the agro-industrial complex, we can see that there have been a number of changes compared to the previous years. In particular, compared to 2017, funding for such budget programs as: 2801030 Financial Support for Measures in the Agro-Industrial Complex by Making Credits cheaper (by 78%), 2801580 Financial Support for Agricultural Producers (by 39%), 2801180 " Financial support of measures in the agro-industrial complex "(by 92%).

The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, in response to the request of the Ukrainian Stock Breeders Association No. 102/09 of 29.09.2017, reported that, for its part, the profile ministry, in preparing budget requests for the preparation of the draft Law "On the State Budget of Ukraine for 2018" the need for the above-mentioned budget programs in much larger volumes of the current actual indicators in the Draft Law.

In particular, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy stated that it is necessary to allocate funds for "Financial support of measures in the agro-industrial complex by reducing the cost of credits" in the amount of 1 billion 300 million UAH, which is 95% more than the actual figure in the Draft Law. In turn, the budget program "Financial support measures in the agro-industrial complex" for 2018 provides for 5 million UAH, which is only 0.8% of the volume, which expressed the need of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy - 620 million 100 thousand UAH.

Only half satisfied the needs of the Ministry of Agriculture to finance the budget program "Financial Support for Agricultural Producers" in 2018: 2 billion 945 million UAH from the claimed 5 billion 945 million UAH.

In addition, the budget program "State support for the development of hop-growing, laying of young orchards, vineyards and berry-crops and supervision of them" was excluded from the draft budget of 2018, despite the fact that the Ministry of Agrarian Policy submitted a request for this program in the amount of 362 million 757 thousand UAH. 

On the other hand, in addition to a significant reduction in funding for the above-mentioned budget programs, a significant increase in expenditures under the budget program "State support in the field of animal husbandry" (by 13 times) is officially planned for 2018. Although it is now not known, according to the results of consideration of the draft Law of Ukraine "On the State Budget for 2018" livestock keep the previously announced 2.3 billion UAH.

The USBA chairman Iryna Palamar commented: "At the moment, there is a fierce struggle in the political circles for budgetary funds for the next year, Ukrainian cattle breeders want to cut financing in every way because of the alleged lack of demand for such amounts of funds. As shown by a recent poll conducted by our Association, livestock producers require funds for the construction and reconstruction of their complexes for a total of 2048250000 UAH, which is in line with the declared amount of funds in the draft budget for 2018. If this amount of financing of the livestock sector is included in the official version of the Law or as a result of consideration of the draft Law of Ukraine "On the State Budget for 2018", this will be an effective investment in the economy of the country, will bear fruit in the near future. "

In addition, a significant increase in expenditures for "anti-epizootic activities and participation in the International Epizootic Bureau" (6 times) and "Carrying out land reform" (4 times) is planned within the framework of the draft budget 2018.

Another positive moment in the current draft of the state budget is that it was 100% satisfied with the request of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy to finance a new budget program "Financial support for the development of farms" in the amount of 1 billion UAH, which can become a significant impetus for the development of small and medium-sized businesses in agrarian sector.

Also in 2018, it is planned to increase the financing of the services under the Ministry of Agrarian Policy: the State Service of Ukraine for Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre (793 million UAH), the State Forest Resources Agency (50 million UAH), the State Agency for Fisheries (20 million ), The State Service for Food Safety and Consumer Protection (by 1 billion 123 million 371 thousand UAH).

The USBA, 2017