The volume of agricultural investments approved in category A (<60,000 TD) to acquire the special funds of agricultural development reached 69.406 million dinars (MD) by late December 2021, down 15.75% on the figures of the previous year.
The latest statistics provided by the National Observatory of Agriculture (French: ONAGRI) also show 8,861 investors had access to these special funds with an average financing of 7,832,7 dinars/ recipient.
Premiums account for 39% of the amount of investments, down 18.7% on last year (27.087 MD against 33.303 MD in 2020).
A 20.3% decline in own funds to finance approved investments was also reported with 38.8 MD in comparison with 48.656 MD in 2020. This, ONAGRI further said, goes hand in hand with a considerable rise in the amount of bank loans earmarked for investment (3.519 MD against 0.426 MD one year earlier).
Sectoral distribution revealed a considerable increase in the volume of investments earmarked for cattle (13.302 MD in comparison with 6.582 MD in 2020).
Bigger investments (+11.5%) were directed to fisheries (5.224 MD against 4.685 MD in 2020), it also emerges from statistics, while funds meant for facilities grew 0.6% (6.395 MD compared to 6.357 MD in 2020).
Investments channeled to the fight against soil erosion fell 49% (3.551 MD in 2021 against 6.956 MD in 2020). The same downward trend was seen in investments meant for the acquisition of equipment (-48.3%) which dropped to 9.738 MD from 18.853 MD in the previous year.
Irrigation saw investments edge down 19.7% (26.568 MD against 33.086 MD in 2020). Investments for plantations followed suit, shrinking 21.1 % to 4.62 MD in comparison with 5.859 MD in 2020.
Southern Tunisia reported the highest share of approved investments (62.15 %), followed by the midland (24.68%) and the north (13.18%).
