Sixty young farmers are expected to benefit from a €4.3 million allocation in a drive to lure people back into farming.

Parliamentary Secretary for EU Funds Ian Borg said the sub-measure was aimed at supporting young farmers.

In Malta, 70 per cent of the full time farmers are over the age of 40.

Young farmers frequently need support and incentives to enter into agricultural activity due to several barriers such as difficulties in acquiring land because of the high costs of either purchasing or renting, fragmentation of land, and difficulties in obtaining loans for business investment through regular commercial channels.

A significant numbers of young people have already attended agricultural courses, but due to limited financial returns only a few eventually entered the world of farming and became professional farmers. 

Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture Roderick Galdes said new ideas are needed to innovate the sector and make it more competitive. 

This measure will be complementing the four measures announced earlier last year, which will bring the total amount of budget on agriculture announced under the EU's Rural Development Programme 2014-2020 to a value of around €69 million. 

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