"The steep slopes as a formative and valuable cultural landscape are particularly important to the district of Ludwigsburg. We want to effectively support the winegrowers in the costly preservation of the steep slopes with this funding program," says District Administrator Dr. Rainer Haas.
But the steep vineyard slopes are not only beautiful to look at and a tourist highlight of our district. The maintenance and preservation of this traditional cultural landscape involves many hours of hard work. In times of climate change, however, extreme weather events are now becoming more frequent. The dry stone walls in the vineyards are directly exposed to these extremes due to their exposed location. The consequences can be landslides. For the winegrower, this not only means a loss of yield for several years, but also a lot of work to replant the vineyard and rebuild the damaged vineyard walls. The principle of "ownership obliges" also applies to agricultural land, which means that the landowner is also responsible for road safety.
Because of its special responsibility for preserving the cultural heritage of dry-stone viticulture, the district has therefore set up a funding program to provide support in the event of damage to vineyards following extreme natural events. According to this program, winegrowers whose vineyards are affected by natural disasters can be supported with up to 50 percent of the net costs for traffic safety measures, but not more than 10,000 euros in individual cases. Immediately necessary emergency measures to protect against further landslides are eligible for funding. The prerequisite for receiving funding is that the affected area is restored and continued to be farmed within a reasonable period of time.
Applications can also be submitted to the lower agricultural authority at the Ludwigsburg district office for past events since the beginning of 2018 - however, the natural event must not have occurred more than two years ago.
The applications submitted by then are reviewed and evaluated by January 31 of each year. A total of 30,000 euros per year is available in the district administration's budget for the funding program. The funding program can be viewed on the homepage of the Ludwigsburg District Office under the link https://www.landkreis-ludwigsburg.de/de/landratsamt-landkreis/aktuelles/amtliche-bekanntmachungen/ as well as from the viticulture advisors.
