The last projects to be funded under the European Union's Special Accession Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development (SAPARD) will receive less money compared to other beneficiaries.

SAPARD funding was given for investments in agriculture.

An auction held on September 26 2007 distributed participation in approved projects between 45 beneficiaries.

The beneficiaries would have to secure 60 per cent of the value of the project, the remaining 40 per cent would be subsidised.

Until now beneficiaries received 50 per cent of a project's value in subsidies.

The reduction of the percentage subsidised had been decided because these were the last projects to be funded under the current SAPARD budget, which was not enough to cover 50 per cent of the projects' value, the state agricultural fund said.

The state agriculture fund has been accredited to distribute the pre-accession funds.