Rural Development Programme support

The Grošelj farm receives support from the Rural Development Programme of the Republic of Slovenia 2014–2020, co-financed by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD). Below is a short summary of the measures; the full description is available in Slovenian.

Organic farming (measure 11)

Support for converting the farm to organic farming methods – fruit (quinces, peaches, apricots and haskap berries) and permanent grassland. The farm is certified organic every year, completes annual training and follows an individual conversion plan, contributing to biodiversity, clean drinking water, soil fertility and the cultural landscape.

Areas with natural or other specific constraints (measure 13)

Payments that help the farm keep its land cultivated in an area where farming is harder and more expensive. This prevents overgrowth, preserves biodiversity and the agricultural landscape and helps keep rural areas populated.

Start-up aid for young farmers (measure 6.1)

Urh Grošelj received start-up aid to take over the farm and develop it: increasing production capacity and competitiveness, introducing innovations, investing in equipment with a lower environmental impact, broadening the range of homemade products and creating employment on the farm.

Investment in fruit processing and cold storage (measure 4.2)

The second phase of the investment in processing surplus fruit: renovating an existing building and buying equipment for processing fruit into jams, preserves and dried fruit, packaging equipment, and a cold store and freezer, so that all good-quality fruit – pawpaws, haskap berries, quinces and peaches – can be sold or processed at home.