Government compensation for damage caused by adverse weather events

The government never leaves farmers alone — it reacts immediately when they need help and support. Speaking to farmers, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced compensation for those who have suffered losses in vegetable crops.

“Today, I have heard about a very important problem. Due to a particularly warm September, cauliflowers and broccoli started to ripen very quickly and there has been a major problem with receiving them. In many places, they have over-ripened, bringing significant losses to farmers. I have spoken to the Minister of Agriculture and instructed him to prepare an entire scheme to compensate for these losses”, the Prime Minister announced.

Recently, the Minister of Agriculture held a meeting with orchard and fruit growers. The talks concerned compensation for damage caused by adverse weather events, which will be provided to producers who lost less than 70% of their crops.

Supporting Polish farmers

The head of the Polish government stressed that farmers would be receiving aid regardless of circumstances. He cited numerous examples, including drought, ASF epidemic, COVID-19 and energy crisis, during which the government supported the farmers.

But these are not the only forms of government assistance for the Polish countryside. Starting from 2023, as many as 97% of farms up to 50 hectares in size have been receiving subsidies exceeding the EU average.

We appreciate the hard work of farmers. Our actions allow farmers who have lost out on grain sales to apply for a subsidy. In the case of wheat, the subsidy amounted to PLN 3,025 per hectare. Under our policy, subsidies for other cereals are also possible. We have also established a fertiliser subsidy scheme and expanded agricultural fuel subsidies.

Click here to learn more — Proposals for the Polish countryside

Polish embargo on Ukrainian grain imports

Our appeal to the European Commission to extend the ban on imports of Ukrainian grain and other agricultural products to Poland and four other member states was not heeded. To protect our country from cereal market turbulence, we have unilaterally extended the embargo on the import of selected Ukrainian products into Poland. We have saved the Polish countryside.

“The Polish state takes action. Though we may have no influence on the weather or Russia’s actions towards Ukraine, and what other crisis Russia will trigger, we act wherever we can", the Prime Minister stressed.

Changing the Polish countryside

• In 2022, we earmarked PLN 2.6 billion for fertiliser subsidies and plan to earmark as much as PLN 4.7 billion for this purpose in 2023.
• We have introduced agricultural fuel subsidies, which consist of excise duty refunds. Currently, the subsidy amounts to PLN 1.46 per litre. This is the highest possible reimbursement amount as of today. In addition, we will apply to the European Commission for approval of a subsidy of PLN 0.54 per litre of diesel, which will increase the amount of refund to PLN 2 per litre of oil.
• We help protect crops from adverse weather. To that end, we have introduced crop insurance.
• Between 2018 and 2019, we earmarked around PLN 4.5 billion for drought relief for farmers.
• Simple and direct agricultural retailing — thanks to our activities, farmers can sell their produce directly to consumers without limits and under favourable financial conditions.
• We have increased the funding for farmers for 2021–2022 by around PLN 650 million, with this funding used for such things as the control of infectious animal diseases.
• Under the 2014–2020 Rural Development Programme, we increased the funding limit for land consolidation from €285 million to €423 million.