SRD01 Agricultural Productive Investments for Competitiveness - Call II

The intervention is aimed at enhancing the market competitiveness of farms and increasing their profitability, while improving their climatic and environmental performance. These aims will be pursued by enhancing farm structures, increasing productivity and adjusting the structure of farm costs and revenues.

The intervention contributes to achieving the general objectives of Article 5 (a) and (b) and the following objectives of Article 6 of Regulation (EU) 2021/2115:

• SO2 Improve market orientation and increase farm competitiveness in the short and long term, including through an increased focus on research, technology and digitalisation.
• SO5 Promote sustainable development and efficient management of natural resources such as water, soil and air, including by reducing chemical dependency.
• XCO Transversal objective of modernising the sector by promoting and sharing knowledge, innovations and digitisation processes in agriculture and rural areas and encouraging their use.

The specific aims of the intervention are:

(a) enhancement of land capital (land improvement and reparcelling, improvement and/or new construction of production facilities) and of farm endowments;

(b) improvement of climatic-environmental performance and animal welfare, including through the reduction and optimisation of the use of production inputs (including energy supply for self-consumption), the reduction and sustainable management of production residues and the removal and disposal of asbestos/asbestos cement

c) improvement of product characteristics and differentiation of production on the basis of market needs;

d) introduction of technical and management innovation in production processes through investments in digital technology;

(e) enhancing the value of farm produce through the processing, transformation and marketing (including preservation/storage and packaging) of products, including within local and/or short supply chains.

For aid applications for an amount of expenditure requested of less than EUR 300,000.00, the Investment Project must be signed by the applicant, while for aid applications for an amount of expenditure requested of EUR 300,000.00 or more, the Investment Project must be drawn up and signed by a qualified and competent professional within the meaning of the professional rules recognised by the legislation in force.

If required to carry out the planned works, the possession of a valid town planning title is necessary to demonstrate the cantierabilità of the intervention. This title must be possessed on the date of the aid application.

For aid applications exceeding €300,000.00, the economic sustainability of the investment is demonstrated through the positive assessment by a credit institution of the granting of a loan or medium-term financing for at least 50% of the expenditure requested.

Failure to meet any of the project requirements results in ineligibility for support.

At the date of submission of the aid application, each applicant is obliged to set up and update its own electronic farm file in accordance with Presidential Decree no. 503/99 ss.mm. and ii. The farm file is the set of information declared by the holding, checked and verified and unambiguously ascertained through the IACS.

The following investment operations are eligible under the specific purposes

1. Facilities serving production;

2. Restructuring of agricultural land (land improvements);

3. Farm roads, farm electrification and sewerage system;

4. Supply of energy from renewable sources for farm needs;

5. Roofing structures;

6. Facilities for the handling, processing, preservation, marketing of farm agricultural products.

Further information on eligibility criteria, eligible and non-eligible expenditure, selection criteria and how to apply for aid can be found in the text of the notice approved by decision of the Provincial Council No 1961 of 29 November 2024.

The total public expenditure for Intervention SRD01 for the year 2024 for the programming period 2023-2027 is € 3,250,864.19.

1. Support shall be provided in the form of a capital grant. The amount of support is established as shown in the table below:

2. The minimum amount of eligible expenditure per aid application is €30,000.00 excluding VAT, both at the grant and at the final payment stage.

3. The maximum amount of eligible expenditure per aid application is €700,000.00 excluding VAT.

4. The maximum limit of eligible expenditure per beneficiary and programme is €700,000.00 excluding VAT. This limit must also be respected by livestock or mixed farms with a prevalence of livestock (calculated in terms of hours on the basis of the time table), which are eligible for both this Intervention SRD01 and Intervention SRD02. The calculation of the maximum limit of eligible expenditure for these holdings must take into account the sum of all eligible expenses related to investment operations of both interventions up to a maximum of € 1,000,000.00 excluding VAT, it being understood that for Intervention SRD01 the total capacity per beneficiary and programming can only reach € 700,000.00.

5. In the case of applications proposed by agricultural operators who are 65 years of age or older on the date the application is submitted, the maximum eligible expenditure is € 100,000.00 excluding VAT. In the case of companies and associations of companies, this provision shall apply if the average age of the members is over 65.

6 Specific expenditure limits per investment operation are set out in the sections on the operations themselves.

Demarcation (double financing)

1. This provision provides guidance on the compatibility of the investments envisaged in the PSP's investment operations with other EU financial instruments.

2. Please refer to the tables in Annex 2 to Resolution No. 1961/2024 as regards compatibility with other financial instruments and with Intervention SRG06 - LEADER - implementation of local development strategies.

Cumulability of aid

Expenditure financed under this measure is not eligible for any other financing through European Union financial instruments.

The same expenditure is eligible for support through national (State or regional) State aid schemes only if the total cumulated amount granted with the different forms of support does not exceed the maximum aid intensity or the amount of aid applicable to the type of intervention in question, as laid down in Title III of Regulation (EU) 2021/2115.

State Aid

The intervention does not fall outside the scope of Article 42 TFEU and is not subject to State aid assessment.

Selection of aid applications

l Requirements for scoring must be met by the applicant at the time the aid application is submitted.

The ranking list for access to aid applications submitted is drawn up on the basis of scores awarded as specified in point 7 of Resolution No 1961/2024 and set out in the attached document.

Beneficiaries are individual or associated farmers who, in accordance with Article 2135 of the Civil Code, are engaged in cultivation of the land, forestry, animal husbandry (limited to dairy and beef zootechny), and related activities, who have an agricultural VAT number and are registered with the C.C.I.A.A. as of the date of submission of the application.
The registration with the C.C.I.A.A. is waived for young farmers who have submitted an application on Intervention SRE01 of the PHP and have not yet completed the setting-up process.

All production sectors related to the production of products listed in Annex I of the TFEU are eligible for support, with the exclusion of

1. fisheries and aquaculture products;
2. wildlife breeding;
3. the livestock sector with the exception of the dairy and meat sectors for which only the following investment operations are eligible

• "Production facilities", limited to machinery and equipment storage facilities;
• "Structures for the handling, processing, preservation, marketing of farm agricultural products". For operations in the dairy sector only, aid is granted only to

1. holdings operating in the sheep and goat sector
2. certified organic holdings with reference to the entire sector being financed and with a certified organic end product;
3. agri-tourism operators or, alternatively, companies in possession of an urban title authorising a project with an agri-tourism purpose;
4. companies operating in the cattle sector with a maximum herd size of 20 LU.

To submit an application you must

- have a digital signature;

- whoever enters the application (the applicant or the appointed consultant) must be accredited on the portal, as specified on this webpage

The application must be digitally signed by the person entitled to sign the document, otherwise it will be inadmissible.

For any assistance in accessing and enabling the portal, please contact helpdesk.srtrento@provincia.tn.it.

Only one application may be submitted

The following shall constitute grounds for the inadmissibility of the application

1. failure to meet the deadline for submitting applications
2. the absence of information enabling the applicant to be unequivocally identified;
3. failure of the legal representative to sign the application;
4. the submission of applications using methods other than those described above;
5. applications signed by a person other than the legal representative or a person expressly delegated or without a signature.

The application must be submitted online by accessing the provincial agricultural information system SRTrento by the deadline of 31 March 2025. Access to the restricted area is permitted only to registered users.

SRTrento can also be accessed via the portal https://a4g.provincia.tn.it/ .

For the documentation to be attached to the aid application, please refer to paragraphs 7.5 and 7.6 of Provincial Council Resolution No 1961/2024.

Deadline for applications: 31 March 2025.

PROCEDURAL PROCESS

The procedure for granting or refusing aid is structured as follows:

1. procedure for the approval, by determination of the Head of the Agricultural Service, of a merit ranking of the applications submitted within 45 days from the day after the deadline for submission of applications;

2. communication to the applicant of the person in charge of the procedure, of the position in the ranking list eligible for financing, the possible request for regularisation or integration of the documentation for the purposes of the preliminary investigation and the request for the estimated metric calculation on computer support in spreadsheet format (.xls .xlsx .odf)

3. alternatively a communication will be sent to the applicant of the position in the ranking list ineligible for financing;

4. the procedure concludes with a determination by the Director of the Agricultural Service within 120 days from the approval of the ranking list (days when the administrative procedure expires) granting or denying the grant to the applicant. The act granting the contribution may impose conditions and constraints in relation to the specific investment project;

5. notice of grant award/rejection of the grant.