Source: BUS Sachsen-Anhalt (Linie6Plus)

Apply for grants for advice for agricultural enterprises and producer associations

Description

The Ministry of Economy, Tourism, Agriculture and Forestry of Saxony-Anhalt supports you in advising agricultural enterprises or producer associations. You must provide advice on improving animal welfare or on economic and environmental production conditions. The eligible advisory services are set out in seven annexes, which form part of the guidelines.

The advice is intended to improve economic, animal and environmental production conditions. In addition, the advice is intended to ensure efficient agriculture that is geared towards future requirements.

You can apply for a grant for the advice you receive.

Depending on the type and scope of the advice, the grant covers part of the expenses incurred. This enables agricultural enterprises and producer associations (final beneficiaries) to receive discounted advisory services.

The grant is awarded as a subsidy. The grant amounts to a maximum of 90 percent of your eligible expenditure. However, minimum and maximum limits apply.

On the one hand, no grants of less than 500 euros (de minimis limit) will be awarded. On the other hand, eligible expenditure is limited to up to 120 euros (net) per consulting hour and 1,500 euros (net) per consulting service and company.

For each company, only one consultation per system (consulting service) can be funded per calendar year. However, you can receive a grant for several consultations on different consulting services.

In total, grants of up to EUR 4,500 can be awarded per company per calendar year. Expenditure is generally eligible net, i.e. excluding VAT.

The following advisory services are eligible for funding:

Health aspects of animal husbandry,
Adaptation to climate change,
Sustainable use of soil, water and air resources,
Conservation of biodiversity,
Organic farming,
fertilization and
sustainable plant protection.

Prerequisites

You are advising the agricultural enterprise or producer association on one or more eligible consulting priorities.
Your planned advisory service is not already funded by other public funding programs.
You have not already contractually agreed on the consulting priorities in question as part of the accompanying farm advisory service.
Your advisory service is not mandatory for the agricultural enterprise or producer association (for example, fertilizer advice is mandatory under the Material Flow Balance Ordinance).
You may only conclude the consultancy contract after the application has been submitted (the draft contract to be submitted with the application may only be signed by the final beneficiary (your client)).
Your client (final beneficiary) is an agricultural enterprise or producer group in primary production.
The agricultural enterprise or producer association has its registered office in Saxony-Anhalt.
The company or producer group you are advising is a micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME).
Your clients are not in difficulty within the meaning of Article 2 No. 14 of Regulation (EU) No. 702/2014
The company must have complied with recovery orders based on a previous decision of the European Commission declaring aid unlawful and incompatible with the internal market.
The company or producer association has repaid previous recovery orders.
They are recognized as advisors by the State Institute for Agriculture and Horticulture.
You are registered in the "List of recognized private consultants in Saxony-Anhalt" for the relevant categories and with the relevant consulting focus.
They are sufficiently qualified for the planned consultation.

Required documents

Written application (use the form for this)
Draft contract for the advisory services between you as the advisory service provider and the agricultural enterprise or producer association
The mandatory information that the draft contract must contain can be found on page 3 of the information sheet on the "Guidelines for agricultural advisory support" and section 7.4 of the guidelines
Proof that:
- Technology, logistics and capacities are available to carry out the intended advisory service,
- the respective advisor has carried out the advisory activity for at least 2 years without interruption (exceptions may be permitted if the advisory staff have sufficient qualifications) and
- you or your advisory staff ensure the separation of advisory and monitoring activities (e.g. by dividing tasks).

Information sheet in accordance with the guidelines on the granting of subsidies for the promotion of agricultural advisory services (guidelines for the promotion of agricultural advisory services) Saxony-Anhalt

Deadlines

For the application process in the current year yearyou must have submitted the application for payment by November 20 of the current year (application year) at the latest. Accordingly, the application for funding for consulting services must also be submitted and approved by November 20 of the current year at the latest.

Legal remedy

You can take legal action against the decision of the approval authority. The decision will then be reviewed. Details of this procedure can be found in the information on legal remedies at the end of your decision. We recommend that you talk to the granting authority first before taking legal action against the decision.

Responsible body

Office for Agriculture, Land Consolidation and Forestry Anhalt

Procedure

You must apply for the grants in writing. To do so, please use the form provided ("Funding application"). This is available online in the ELAISA portal.

Please enclose the following documents with your application:

the draft contract for the advisory service(s) between you as the advisory service provider and the agricultural enterprise or producer association as your client.

Send the documents to the Amt für Landwirtschaft, Flurneuordnung und Forsten (ALFF) Anhalt before the consultation.

Once all the documents have been received in full by the approval authority, it will check whether you meet the requirements for a grant in accordance with the "Guidelines for agricultural consultancy funding".
If the consultancy expenses applied for are eligible for funding, you will receive an approval notice. This notification will tell you the maximum amount of the grant. The maximum amount is based on the information you provide in the application and draft contract. The draft contract will be returned to you at the same time.
The agricultural enterprise or producer association (final beneficiary) will receive a copy of the approval notice.
You may only conclude the advisory contract and start the advisory service after approval has been granted.
The approval notice becomes final one month after notification. This means that it can no longer be contested with legal remedies, such as an objection. You can also declare that you will not lodge an appeal. In this case, the approval notice becomes final beforehand.
You will receive the grant at the earliest after the approval notice becomes final.

Further information

There is no entitlement to the award of grants. The granting authority decides at its discretion within the framework of the available budget funds.

You undertake to provide the competent authorities with operational data on the companies advised. This data is required for an anonymized inter-company evaluation.

Furthermore, you undertake to treat the information received in connection with the consultation confidentially.

Furthermore, you must provide neutral advice. You undertake to ensure that the advice follows the following principles:

conscientious and
independent and free from third-party interests,
no direct or indirect advertising, sales or brokerage activities for goods or company-related services,
no legal advice,
no specific product advertising.

You also undertake to document the advisory recommendations

to document
and have them signed by all parties involved,
to keep them
and to submit them to the competent authorities on request.

Administrative checks and random on-site inspections may be carried out by the authorities listed below.

They are obliged to allow audits by the competent authorities of the federal state, the federal government, the European Union (EU) and the relevant courts of audit. You must allow these authorities

grant these authorities access to the business management documents,
provide assistance with inspections and grant access to all business premises and facilities.

If you do not allow the audit to be carried out, your grant will be revoked.