Polish Agriculture Requests Subsidy for Clean and Safe Farmyards

Poland is asking the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed to remove two areas (near Poznan and Leszno), where there have been no new ASF cases for a year, from the ‘blue’ list of travel restrictions.

An earlier request, after three months of being ASF-free, was rejected by the European Union. There is a possibility that the blue zones could disappear elsewhere as well. Soon it will be one year since the last outbreak in Podlaskie (the zone near Łapy and Bielsk Podlaski), and in August it will be twelve months since the last ASF outbreak near Parczewo and Radzyń Podlaski in the Lublin region.

However, the pace at which areas are ‘released’ from the zone by the EU will depend on the further development of the situation in both wild boars and pigs.

The organization of Polish pig farmers has called on the government to provide more subsidies for improving biosecurity on farms in the Polish countryside. Many Polish farmers complain that the government hides behind strict EU rules for ‘clean’ and ‘safe’ farms, focusing on health, biodiversity, and food safety. On this point, the many small ‘peasant farmers’ on the vast Polish countryside have a bad reputation.

In addition, the agricultural industry is asking for ‘relaxation’ of the subsidy and penalty system. If a Polish farm fully complies with nine out of ten inspection points for biosecurity but fails on one small aspect, the entire subsidy is immediately withdrawn.

Moreover, a Polish farmer receives a fine if a contaminated dead wild boar is found on his land or fields. Furthermore, Polish farmers are requesting financial compensation for their losses caused by the ban on livestock transports, which now affects more than one-third of all of Poland.

While in eastern Germany the construction of the wildlife fence around the contaminated areas is progressing slowly due to disagreements between authorities, the search for affected wild animals seems to be working well. The Friedrich Loeffler Institute (FLI) has confirmed three new cases in recent days. The epidemic has now been identified in a total of 49 wild boars in Germany.