Federal Act
on Agriculture
(Agriculture Act, AgricA)

¹ Own­ers who run their own farms or will do so after in­vest­ment re­ceive in­vest­ment loans:¹⁵⁰

a.

as one-time start-up sup­port for young farm­ers;

b.

for the con­struc­tion, con­ver­sion and im­prove­ment of res­id­en­tial and farm build­ings;

c.¹⁵¹

for meas­ures aimed at di­ver­si­fy­ing activ­it­ies in the ag­ri­cul­tur­al and closely as­so­ci­ated sec­tors in or­der to provide po­ten­tial sources of ad­di­tion­al in­come;

d.¹⁵²

for meas­ures aimed at im­prov­ing the pro­duc­tion of spe­cial crops and ad­apt­ing them to the mar­ket, as well as for re­new­ing long-term crops.

² Ten­ant farm­ers re­ceive in­vest­ment loans:

a.

as one-time start-up sup­port for young farm­ers;

b.

for the pur­chase of farms from third parties;

c.

for the con­struc­tion, con­ver­sion and im­prove­ment of res­id­en­tial and farm build­ings on con­di­tion that the right to erect or own a build­ing on the land in ques­tion can be demon­strated, or if the ten­ancy agree­ment is entered in the land re­gister for the fixed dur­a­tion of the loan ac­cord­ing to Art­icle 290 of the Swiss Code of Ob­lig­a­tions¹⁵³ and the land own­er pledges the ob­ject of the ten­ancy agree­ment as se­cur­ity for the loan;

d.¹⁵⁴

for meas­ures aimed at di­ver­si­fy­ing activ­it­ies in the ag­ri­cul­tur­al and closely as­so­ci­ated sec­tors in or­der to provide po­ten­tial sources of ad­di­tion­al in­come, in­so­far as the con­di­tions set out un­der let­ter c are met;

e.¹⁵⁵

for meas­ures aimed at im­prov­ing the pro­duc­tion of spe­cial crops and ad­apt­ing them to the mar­ket as well as for the re­new­al of long-term crops in­so­far as the con­di­tions un­der let­ter c are met.

³ In­vest­ment loans are gran­ted as lump-sums.

⁴ Un­der the Fed­er­al Act of 4 Oc­to­ber 1974¹⁵⁶ on the Pro­mo­tion of Hous­ing Con­struc­tion and Home Own­er­ship and the Fed­er­al Act of 20 March 1970¹⁵⁷, on the Im­prove­ment of Liv­ing Con­di­tions in Alpine Re­gions, fin­an­cial as­sist­ance may also be sought, in ad­di­tion to in­vest­ment loans, for res­id­en­tial build­ings.

⁵ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may stip­u­late re­quire­ments and ob­lig­a­tions and al­low ex­cep­tions to the rule of own­er/farm­er and stip­u­late the grant­ing of lump-sum in­vest­ment loans.¹⁵⁸