As many as 3,322 family farms and businesses using agricultural grants will receive less money this year, Jutarnji List daily wrote on Tuesday.

Some of the family farms that have received millions in grants for karst pastures will be left without a good portion or most of the money. These grant users have failed, even after multiple extensions of deadlines, to provide the Paying Agency for Agriculture with proof showing that they have a proper legal basis to use the state-owned forest and agricultural land they registered in the ARKOD register. Registration of land in the ARKOD system is the basic requirement for entitlement to grants.

For this reason, on February 22, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry removed from the ARKOD register a total of 22,645 hectares of state-owned forest and agricultural land used by family farms and businesses.

For the use of the 22,645 hectares of land, the Paying Agency for Agriculture and Rural Development paid out 42 million kuna (€5.5 million) in 2020 and 35.5 million (€4.7 million) in 2021, or a total of 77.5 million kuna (€10.3 million) in grants, to the state land users which did not have valid papers.

Most of the land parcels removed from the ARKOD register are located in the municipalities of Gracac, Drnis, Starigrad, Ruzic and Trilj.

The Ministry of Agriculture told Jutarnji List that the family farms and businesses in question could be reinstated in the register if they provided proof of the right to use state-owned agricultural land.