Department of Agriculture incentives for farmers

The Department of Agriculture’s Incentives Program is the set of financial aid, vouchers and reimbursements the umbrella agency — grouping the Agricultural Enterprise Development Administration (ADEA), the Land Authority, the Agricultural Insurance Corporation and the Agricultural Development Innovation Fund — makes available to farmers each fiscal year. Its stated mission is to achieve efficient, competitive, high-quality and larger-scale agricultural production through services and incentives that foster the stability, development and permanence of agriculture. Puerto Rico is divided into eight agricultural regions — Arecibo, Caguas, Lares, Mayagüez, Naranjito, Ponce, San Germán and Utuado — to provide more focused support to local farmers.

The manual publishes five general requirements. Legally operating a farm under any notarized form of legal tenure, except Land Authority contracts. Holding a valid Merchant Registry Certificate. For insurable crops and structures, complying with Ley 99 of 2 July 2002 and Article 4 of Ley Núm. 12 of 12 December 1966, as amended, known as Puerto Rico’s Agricultural Insurance Act. Being registered in the Agroperfil. And presenting evidence of having completed the General Survey. In addition, several incentives are conditioned on approval and fund availability, and the wage subsidy carries its own employer requirements.

• Legally operating a farm under any notarized form of legal tenure, except Land Authority contracts.Verified against the official source
• Holding a valid Merchant Registry Certificate.Verified against the official source
• For insurable crops and structures, complying with Ley 99 of 2 July 2002 and Article 4 of Ley Núm. 12 of 12 December 1966, as amended, Puerto Rico’s Agricultural Insurance Act.Verified against the official source
• Being registered in the Agroperfil.Verified against the official source
• Presenting evidence of having completed the General Survey.Verified against the official source
• For the wage subsidy: meeting employer obligations — employer social security, unemployment insurance and a State Insurance Fund policy — and employing farm workers paying them at least $5.25 an hour, the wage guaranteed by Ley 60, as amended.Verified against the official source

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: Clear the five general requirements first

   There is no incentive without these. Legally operating a farm under any notarized form of legal tenure, excepting Land Authority contracts. A valid Merchant Registry Certificate. Complying with the Agricultural Insurance Act for insurable crops and structures. Being registered in the Agroperfil. And evidence of having completed the General Survey. The last two are the ones most people discover late and the easiest to fix: the Agroperfil is registered at agricultura.pr.gov.

2. 2

   Step 2: If you have employees: the wage subsidy

   The Secretary of Agriculture may set the wage subsidy reimbursement under Puerto Rico’s Incentives Code, Ley 60-2019, ensuring a minimum of $2.72 per hour worked from 1 July 2021, up to a maximum of $250 thousand a year. The manual specifies that the law imposes no cap on the incentive as long as the budget allows, and that for this procedure the reimbursement will be 50% of the rate the employer paid for each certified hour worked. To qualify you must be current on employer obligations — employer social security, unemployment insurance and a State Insurance Fund policy — and pay farm workers at least $5.25 an hour, the wage guaranteed by Ley 60.

3. 3

   Step 3: The sector incentives

   Milk producers: twenty-two thousandths of a cent ($0.022) per quart produced, certified by ORIL. Broiler chicken producers: five dollars fifty-five cents ($5.55) per thousand pounds of chicken produced, certified. Egg producers: one dollar forty cents ($1.40) per box of thirty dozen eggs, and pullets at fifteen cents ($0.15) per hen, certified by the Egg Industry Development Fund (FFHI).

4. 4

   Step 4: Coffee: harvesting, planting, replanting and pruning

   The harvester is paid $1.50 per almud of ripe coffee gathered. For new coffee plantings, a voucher for a thousand seedlings per cuerda up to a maximum of twenty cuerdas per farmer per year, with the farmer contributing $0.25 per tree; plus a purchase order for a thousand coffee seedlings worth one thousand dollars, one for fertilizers worth two hundred dollars, one for pesticides worth one hundred dollars and one for limestone carbonate or soil amendment worth one hundred fifty dollars. For replanting and ordered plantings, the sale price of the approved seedling is one dollar and the incentive is a purchase order of sixty cents per seedling up to five thousand seedlings per farmer per year, at a thousand per cuerda: the farmer pays forty cents per seedling. And coffee-tree pruning gives fifty dollars per cuerda pruned plus a one-hundred-dollar voucher per certified cuerda for fertilizers.

5. 5

   Step 5: Cattle, small ruminants, poultry, bees and pigs

   Breeding-cow replacement: three hundred dollars a head up to fifty heifers per farmer per year; they are marked with a rumen bolus and tag, and to be marked and paid the heifer must be at least nine months and at most eighteen. Goats, sheep and rabbits: up to 50% of the total cost, maximum twelve thousand dollars a year per farmer, for buying animals, equipment or building a structure; and raising young goats and sheep is incentivized at one hundred dollars a head up to ten animals per farmer per programme year, identified with a rumen bolus. Poultry industry: up to 50% of the cost of the investment and equipment, maximum twelve thousand dollars a year per farmer. Beekeeping: up to 50% of the equipment cost, maximum three thousand dollars a year. Pig farming: up to 50% of the cost, with two hundred dollars per young sow bought and three hundred per young boar, up to six thousand dollars a year, plus one hundred dollars per replacement sow. New improved-pasture plantings: two hundred dollars per cuerda up to sixty cuerdas, equal to twelve thousand dollars a year per farmer.

6. 6

   Step 6: Fertilizer vouchers, fruit trees and citrus

   The fertilizer incentive is a purchase voucher, and the amount depends on the crop. $175 per cuerda for plantain, banana, cassava, yam, taro, malanga, sweet potato, arracacha, ginger, chayote, avocado, citrus, passion fruit, papaya, pineapple, soursop, guava, breadfruit, cacao, turmeric, dragon fruit, exotic fruits and improved pastures, up to a maximum of $3,500 a year per farmer. $125 per cuerda for peppers, sweet and hot ají, culantro and cilantro, aubergine, cucumber, tomato, onion, cabbage, pumpkin, melon and watermelon, among other vegetables and aromatic plants. $150 for hydroponics, per structure of 100 by 18 feet or its equivalent in no less than 1,800 square feet, up to ten structures and 10,800 square feet, with a maximum of one thousand five hundred dollars per farmer per year. For fruit trees the farmer contributes only 50% of the cost of approved seedlings, up to $3,000.00 a year. For cacao, 352 trees per cuerda at a 10 by 12 planting distance are incentivized, up to two cuerdas per farmer per year, with 50% of the cost of the grafted seedling up to $1,144.00 per cuerda per year. For citrus, a minimum of 165 seedlings per cuerda at six dollars each is approved, up to five cuerdas, for a total of $4,950.00 a year per farmer, subject to availability at ADEA-contracted nurseries.

7. 7

   Step 7: Fishing, specialized equipment and machinery rental

   Fishing industry: up to 50% of the cost and up to a maximum of twelve thousand dollars for buying materials, equipment, new fishing gear and vessels. Specialized equipment: up to 50% of the cost, maximum twelve thousand dollars a year per farmer, for equipment essential to maximizing production — tractors and their implements, generators, chainsaws, trimmers, sprayers, structures and others the Regional Director designates — in industries including hydroponics, ornamentals, cattle, coffee, starchy crops, citrus, vegetables, fruit, sugar cane, high tunnels and shade houses. And the Equipment Rental Program pays up to 50% of the hourly cost of the recommended equipment, with a maximum incentive of eight thousand dollars per application per farmer per year, plus up to 50% of drone rental for spraying with a maximum of one hundred dollars an hour. The published rates are: tracked machine $35.00 an hour, excavator $42.50 an hour, animal traction $15.00 an hour.

8. 8

   Step 8: Apply at your Regional Office

   The manual says you apply by writing or calling your Regional Office. Puerto Rico is divided into eight agricultural regions: Arecibo, Caguas, Lares, Mayagüez, Naranjito, Ponce, San Germán and Utuado. The phone numbers the manual publishes legibly are: Central Offices 787-304-5350, Arecibo Region 787-878-2028, Caguas Region 787-258-8106, Mayagüez Region 787-832-5021 / 787-832-5020 / 787-832-5022, Naranjito Region 787-869-9100, Ponce Region 787-840-8838 and San Germán Region 787-892-5158. Two further entries on that page do not read cleanly in the PDF and we do not reproduce them rather than give you a wrong number: look them up at agricultura.pr.gov. The Department’s physical address is 1309 Av. Manuel Fernández Juncos, San Juan 00908, and its mailing address PO Box 10163, San Juan, PR 00908-1163.

By writing or calling the Department of Agriculture Regional Office that covers you, among the eight agricultural regions. The full Incentives Program manual is downloadable from the Incentivos page at agricultura.pr.gov.

• Not being registered in the Agroperfil, a general requirement for the whole programme.
• Not presenting evidence of having completed the General Survey.
• Applying without a valid Merchant Registry Certificate.
• Budgeting the published cap as though it were a guaranteed payment: almost everything is subject to approval and fund availability.
• Forgetting the 50% own contribution several incentives require.
• Marking a heifer outside the nine-to-eighteen-month range and losing the payment.
• Using a previous fiscal year’s amounts: a new manual is published each year.
• Seeking the wage subsidy without being current on employer social security, unemployment and the State Insurance Fund policy.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Agricultura de Puerto Rico

  Agricultura

  www.agricultura.pr.gov

• Incentives Program Manual, Fiscal Year 2025-2026 (PDF)

  Departamento de Agricultura

  docs.pr.gov