The Agriculture Ministry, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Finance will support farmers in the Gaza vicinity in the amount of NIS 8 million to encourage early harvesting. The move was led jointly by the Director-General of the Prime Minister’s Office, Yoav Horowitz, the Director-General of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Finance, and in cooperation with the heads of the local authorities Minister of Agriculture Uri Ariel: “In the days when the residents of the south and the surrounding areas of Israel experience daily terror, we are here for them, to listen to their needs and respond accordingly, together with the prime minister, the defense minister and the finance minister, we worked to help the farmers so that the land of Israel will not burn any more and that Hamas cannot be proud of burned fields.”

The heads of the local councils in the periphery, Gadi Yarkoni of the Eshkol Regional Council, Tamir Idan of the S’dot Negev Regional Council, Ofir Liebstein of the Shar HaNegev Regional Council, Itamar Revivo of the Ashkelon Coast Regional Council, and Shai Hajaj, head of the Merchavim Regional Council, and the chairman of the Regional Council Center asked to thank the Prime Minister’s Office, and the Ministries of Finance and Agriculture: “That they received the responsible and correct decision.” The heads of the councils noted the work of the ministers, the Director-General of the Ministry of Agriculture, Shlomo Ben-Eliyahu, and the Director-General of the Prime Minister’s Office, Yoav Horowitz,

The Ministry of Agriculture, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Finance will support farmers in the Gaza vicinity up to NIS 8 million for early harvesting. As part of the move, farmers whose areas are adjacent to the security fence will receive financial support at a total cost of up to NIS 8 million, and the early harvesting of wheat and barley will render it suited for marinade and forage.

The allocation of the subsidy budget will cause most of the wheat and barley to be cut while shorten green or half-green, before drying, in order to avoid the possibility of burning the crop.

The support is intended to assist farmers whose land is adjacent to the security fence. Those entitled to support will be farmers in the “line of fire” who cultivate their fields within a range of 0 to 7 kilometers from the perimeter fence around Gaza, with potential areas of about 112,000 dunams (28,000 acres) of wheat and barley fields. The government will provide support through a payment of NIS 100 for each dunam that will be harvested for hay, which means that the field will no longer flammable.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)