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FARMERS EXPECT FROM GOVERNMENT STABILIZIATION OF SITUATION IN AGRICULTURE

26 february, 2015
FARMERS EXPECT FROM GOVERNMENT STABILIZIATION OF SITUATION IN AGRICULTURE Agriculture producers’ associations hope that the new Government, headed by Chiril Gaburici will take into account their opinion and will help in solving problems of the sector.

 

Alexandru Slusari, Deputy Chairman of the National Union of Agricultural Producers' Associations UniAgroProtect said during Thursday’s news conference at Infotag that the situation in the agro-industrial complex is extremely difficult due to the recent currency fluctuations.

 

“Prices on seeds, on spare parts went up by 30-50%. While after the National Bank of Moldova (NBM) decision to raise the base rate by 5%, credits also got more expensive”, said he.

 

In these conditions, agrarians developed a set of measures to come out of the crisis and called the Government to support these.

 

In particular, they demand raising the Agricultural Subsidy Fund to 1.2 billion lei, 500 million of which are internal resources, 400 million are from the European Neighborhood Program in Agriculture and Rural Development (ENPARD) funds and 300 million – from excise taxes on diesel fuel, used for agriculture works.

 

Also, farmers insist upon paying compensations to everyone, who provided in 2014 fruits for processing in conditions of Russian embargo; petroleum market liberalization; transparency at distribution of funds from the 100 million euro Polish credit.

 

“These are just some of the priority measures. In current conditions we need Government’s assistance more than ever. The time of declarations expired, now it is time for concrete actions. If the Government does not agree with this, agrarians take action. Our demands are feasible. Everything can be done with the political will”, said Slusari.

 

Executive Director of the AGROinform Federation Iurie Hurmuzachi said that agriculture workers have much more demands and it will be difficult to convince them confine themselves to the above mentioned points.

 

“Our requirements are not populist and are dictated by the today’s realities”, said he.

 

According to the Moldova-Fruct Director Iurie Fala, 2014 became for horticulturists the most difficult year over the entire Moldova’s independence, when the industry was almost de-capitalized.

 

“For 230 thousand of fruits, provided for processing in 2014, farmers received only 103 million lei, while in 2013 – for 93 thousand tons – 148 million lei. The export of apples fell by 47%. 80 thousand tons of apples have frozen on trees, which led to 140 million lei damage. This is a depressing situation for the industry, where 50 thousand people are working”, said he.

 

Fala thinks that reduction of the Subsidy Fund will force agricultural producers to abandon investing in horticulture.

 

According to him, fruit growers may direct for export around 50 thousand tons of apples more.

 

Valeriu Cosarciuc, Chairman of the National Farmers Federation, said that without governmental help, the sector may go bankrupt.

 

“We are expecting that the government will be not only stating about agriculture’s priority, but step by step will be fulfilling obligations, provided by the Strategy-2020”, said he.

 

Agrarians warned that if the Government does not hear them, they will be forced to resort to protest actions, as it is impossible to further tolerate authorities’ inaction.

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