The Government Gazette has published the Minister of Agricultural Development Athanasios Tsaftaris’ young farmers support program, which includes140 million euros worth of subsidies designed to encourage farming in the country side.

Most of these funds will become available in Central Macedonia (32.4 million euros), Crete (22.8 million euros), Western Greece (15.5 million euros), Peloponnesus (14.7 million euros) and Thessaly (13.6 million euros). Applications will be accepted between 18th of March and 15th of May 2014.

Applicants must be between 18 and 40 years old as well as being a permanent resident of a mountainous, regional, minority or local community with a population under 100,000 people. Additionally, they must submit a five-year business plan with targets and deadlines.

Should a farmer be successful in his application, he will receive the government subsidy in three installments based on the progress, as stipulated in the submitted business plan. The first installment (70% of the subsidy) will be paid out immediately, with the other two 15% installments paid out in the following years, based on achieved goals.

The subsidy itself depends on the business plan goals as well as the farmer’s location; the location subsidy ranges from 2,500 euros to 7,500 euros, while the type of agricultural investment ranges from 5,000 euros for beekeeping, to 7,500 euros for livestock farming. The Ministry will also take into consideration the farmer’s income from the agricultural venture.

The Government Gazette publication approving the Ministry’s plan is available here.