Upper Austria's agricultural budget grows: 96 million for sustainable future!

Upper Austria's agricultural budget grows: 96 million for sustainable future!

LINZ, Österreich - The state of Upper Austria has raised its agricultural budget for the coming year by five million euros to a total of 96 million euros. The focus of this financial support is in the areas of circular economy, innovation and resilience, as State Councilor Michaela Langer-Weninger (ÖVP) and department head Hubert Huber explain. With this measure, the state government reacts to the major challenges in front of which agriculture is facing. "We create a solid basis for a sustainable future," emphasizes Langer-Weninger in her statement on the investments that are classified as "future-oriented", since "good comes back", as the state councilor, as on meinzirk.at is reported.

investments in the future of agriculture

The Agrarbudget 2025 places special focus on numerous measures, including the digital transformation of agriculture and the promotion of young farmers. In fact, more than a third of the budget flows into the area of "Next Generation Agriculture", including the future fund, which should drive digitization, as well as in training projects at the University of Applied Sciences Wels and Steyr. Langer-Weninger underlined that one wanted to secure the competitiveness of the 30,000 rural family businesses. It is also emphasized that 25 to 30 million euros are invested annually in stable buildings, infrastructure and mechanized facilities. It is estimated that over 28,000 projects were supported with around 1.6 billion euros between 2014 and 2022, whereby 86 % of the funding amount flowed into animal -friendly stable buildings, ooe.orf.at .

The support can also be seen in the strong number of granted funding applications in the current funding period from 2023 to 2027. Almost 1,500 applications have been granted, while around 4,000 applications were submitted. These drastic investments and funding are essential steps to make agriculture in Upper Austria future -proof in the long term and to increase their resilience to challenges such as climate changes.