First state funding of renewables in agriculture

The government prepared EUR 5 million for sheep and goat farmers to fund installing equipment for the use of renewable energy – the first time this is being done in agriculture – such as photovoltaic systems which are expected to reduce the cost of production.

Agriculture Minister Nicos Kouyialis has announced measures worth an overall EUR 35 million for the next three years following Cyprus’s official application to register halloumi or hellim cheese as a protected designation of origin (PDO), according to Cyprus Mail’s portal.

Measures involve improving productivity, increasing livestock, increasing the amount of goat and sheep milk and a series of horizontal measures such as adopting a farmers’ registry, upgrading the sheep and goat registration system and improving the water balance with the use of recycled water in agriculture. A EUR 10 million investment will go towards creating new sheep and goat breeding farms while modernising existing ones as part of the rural development 2014–2020 programme.