What does the Ministry of Agriculture, Forest ry and Environment - Ministry of Rural Development and Food). agricultural holding but are not professional farmers, legal persons with main activity the agriculture, young farmers under action 6.1, recognised farmers' associations and small and medium-sized enterprises with an agricultural end product cannot receive a loan from the Small Loan Fund for Rural Entrepreneurship (the Microfinance Facility).

The above clarification was made in a post on social media by Dimitris Papagiannidis, Secretary General of National Resources and Infrastructure of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The amount of the loan set by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development ranges from 3,000 euros to 25,000 euros and the repayment period from 2 to 5 years. In each loan 50% is granted by the PAA through the Fund and is interest-free and the remaining 50% by the bank.

In addition, the CDF through the Fund provides an interest rate subsidy for the remaining half of the bank's loan for the first two years of the loan.

The above results in the beneficiary farmers having zero interest rate for the first two years of repayment of their loan and for the rest of the period they have interest rate only for 50% of their total loan, i.e. for that part of the loan in which the bank participates.

It should be noted that the total budget of the Small Loans Fund for Rural Entrepreneurship (SBAE) in 31.5 million in the next period. EUR 21,5 million from EUR 21,5 million euros that it is today.

Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development - The objectives of the Fund

The aim of the Fund is to provide small investment loans:

• both in farm investments
• and investments related to the processing of agricultural products with an end product that is also agricultural

It is noted that Working Capital may be granted for the purposes of the investment.

The fund concerns Greek SMEs active in the agricultural and agro-processing sector.

The participation in the capital of each loan is 50% interest-free from the Fund and 50% from the partner Credit Institutions.