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The government’s priority is to stop the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) as soon as possible and to compensate affected farmers. Once the threat has passed, it is important to encourage the replacement of the livestock, thus helping farmers to continue their work, the Ministry of Agriculture informed MTI on Thursday evening.
The ministry said in a statement that livestock farming is a national strategic sector, and it is a priority for the government to encourage those affected to recover their activities quickly and to help prevent infection. The government is fully committed to encouraging and supporting repopulation to enable farmers to continue their livestock activities to pre-infection standards.
On affected farms, the government will, of course, support the repopulation of livestock and the epidemiological upgrading of livestock holdings once the threat has passed, while implementing the appropriate control protocol for eradication,”
said the statement, adding that the aim is to restart farming on FMD-affected cattle farms as soon as possible. The relevant government decree will enter into force the day after its publication, ensuring swift action.
In addition, the government will cover the salaries of workers on infected farms, and is also providing a credit moratorium to help farmers.
Under this scheme, all affected farmers will have their loan repayments of principal and interest suspended for one year. This is important because all the farms concerned have invested and improved and have taken out loans, the ministry stressed. The credit moratorium also serves the purpose of ensuring that all farms can restart, which is very important for the Hungarian national economy, they added.
Via MTI, Featured image: Pixabay