Food, Farming and Fishing: National policy on food production to be enacted

Farmers to be given aid to gain certification

€8,000 grant for agri-forest initiative

Giuseppe Attard

Following on the introduction of the agency responsible for food, the government plans to develop further the national policies for a strong food chain across the island.

In order to incentivise the increase of land used for farming and also increase the production of organic farming in Malta, incentives will be given to landowners in order to collaborate with farmers who want to work their land for the production of organic farming.

Improvements are also being promised by the government with regard to the farmers market, in order to improve the facilities and raise the bar when it comes to presentation, packaging and market standards. Aid will also be given to farmers to help them gain certification and improve on the quality of their product.

This is being done to protect the Maltese farmer’s product as well as to prevent fraud in the sale of Maltese produce. Control in the Malta Food Agency will be improved in order to establish proper enforcement in this regard.

With regards to the fishing industry, projects will help improve the light poles which provide lighting in fishing ports. Projects in Gozo tackle new fishing facilities such as landing sites, among others.

In order to maximise the use of agricultural land, and to achieve the aims of the Farm to Fork strategy as well as new initiatives for carbon farming, grants of up to a maximum of €8,000 will be given to landowners whose land is not in use but wish to turn it to a system of agri-forest based on fruit trees.