The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries, Food and Animal Rights, Anton Refalo, announced the launch of a National Pig Welfare Scheme, a scheme that is fully funded by national funds.
This scheme is aimed at the government giving more financial assistance to Maltese and Gozitan farmers who are active in the pig sector and eligible according to the definition laid down by European Union Regulation No 1307/2013 as well as registered in pork production. This is in order to voluntarily continue to improve the living conditions and welfare of animals on their farms.
This scheme is fully funded by national funds where a very important budget amounting to € 446,000 per year has been allocated for a period of five years.
Financial assistance under this scheme will be granted over a period of five years to those pig farmers who voluntarily increase the pig holding space on their holdings.
Such actions shall comply with the dimensions set out by the Division of Veterinary Regulation (VRD) and contained in the detailed guidelines of the scheme which may be downloaded from the website of the Agency for Agricultural and Rural Payments (ARPA) www .arpa.gov.mt.
