﹛﹛2. General servicesPolicies in this category involve expenditures (or revenue foregone) in relation to programmes which provide services or benefits to agriculture or the rural community. They shall not involve direct payments to producers or processors. Such programmes, which include but are not restricted to the following list, shall meet the general criteria in paragraph 1 and policy-specific conditions where set out below:
(a) research, including general research, research in connection with environmental programmes, and research programmes relating to particular products;
(b) pest and disease control, including general and product-specific pest and disease control measures, such as early-warning systems, quarantine and eradication;
? Training services, including both general and specific training facilities;
(d) extension and advisory services, including the provision of means to facilitate the transfer of information and the results of research to producers and consumers;
(e) inspection services, including general inspection services and the inspection of particular products for health, safety, grading or standardization purposes;
(f) marketing and promotion services, including market information, advice and promotion relating to particular products but excluding expenditure for unspecified purposes that could be used by sellers to reduce their selling price or confer a direct economic benefit to purchasers; and
(g) infrastructural services, including: electricity reticulation, roads and other means of transport, market and port facilities, water supply facilities, dams and drainage schemes, and infrastructural works associated with environmental programmes. In all cases the expenditure shall be directed to the provision or construction of capital works only, and shall exclude the subsidized provision of on-farm facilities other than for the reticulation of generally available public utilities. It shall not include subsidies to inputs or operating costs, or preferential user charges.
3. Public stockholding for food security purposes (1)
Expenditures (or revenue foregone) in relation to the accumulation and holding of stocks of products which form an integral part of a food security programme identified in national legislation. This may include government aid to private storage of products as part of such a programme.
The volume and accumulation of such stocks shall correspond to predetermined targets related solely to food security. The process of stock accumulation and disposal shall be financially transparent. Food purchases by the government shall be made at current market prices and sales from food security stocks shall be made at no less than the current domestic market price for the product and quality in question.
4. Domestic food aid (2)
Expenditure (or revenue foregone) in relation to the provision of domestic food aid to sections of the population in need.
Eligibility to receive the food aid shall be subject to clearly-defined criteria related to nutritional objectives. Such aid shall be in the form of direct provision of food to those concerned or the provision of means to allow eligible recipients to buy food either at market or at subsidized prices. Food purchases by the government shall be made at current market prices and the financing and administration of the aid shall be transparent.