Moldovan agriculture minister says waiting for farmers at dialogue, face to face, on subject, with figures available

Chisinau, 18 December /MOLDPRES/ - Agriculture and Food Industry Minister Ludmila Catlabuga today said that she was waiting for farmers at dialogue. The Agriculture Ministry serves the farmers and here we can find solutions to all problems in the sector, according to the official.    

„We know which the claims are; we have answers to them; we have immediate solutions both to some of them and to the others; we have mechanisms which imply effort on behalf of both sides. Neither me, nor the ministry want dialogue on barricades; we urge everybody to have maturity and get involved in a conversation with real arguments and solutions. I remain at the ministry, open to hold conversations and to find solutions. Yet, for this, we must communicate face to face, on the subject, with the figures available, just as farmers who know want to do when things become complicated,’’ Ludmila Catlabuga said.   

A groups of farmers today protest outside the government building; the farmers informed that they would organize a ‘’warning protest’’ outside the government and parliament building on 18 and 19 December. The farmers say that the government delays the approval of a draft law meant to prevent the bankruptcy of the farmers hit by the drought. ‘’We warn that the concerned draft does not provide for the allocation of financial resources from the state budget. This delay is the last drop and the Farmers’ Force Association announce warning protests for 18 December, outside the government building and for 19 December, respectively, outside the parliament building,’’ reads a declaration by the Farmers’ Force Association.      

The draft proposed following consultations with the competent associations envisaged, inter alia, the extension of the moratorium on the payment of the due debts in agriculture till 31 October 2025.  

Among the claims of the Farmers’ Force Association, there is also the prolongation by one more year of the import of cereals and oil-bearing plants from Ukraine based on licence; payment of the state’s debts for subsidies for the 2023 year and the return of farmers’ excise duties for the 2024 year; working out of a mechanism of guarantees of crediting and refinancing of farmers for the new agriculture year 2025.  

The government today approved the draft law on the financing, management and monitoring of the agricultural policy. The new law will provide a more efficient system of providing financial support in the agricultural sector, due to contribute to the enhancement of the sector’s competitiveness, sustainable development of the rural environment and combating of the climate changes. At the same time, the draft law will create an integrated, coherent national legislative framework and correlated to the goals of the European Union’s common agricultural policy, in order to support the attraction of European funds for the development of agriculture.     

The document provides for the implementation of the Strategic Programme of Agriculture Policy, which will establish the strategies of intervention, conditions and size of the financial resources provided, as well as the indexes of monitoring, evaluation and result. Also, the draft regulates the providing of the financial support from the national fund for the development of agriculture for diverse types of interventions, such as direct payments, sectoral interventions and for the rural development, for the modernization of farms, development of the rural infrastructure and promotion of innovations in the agriculture.   

In this respect, objective and non-discriminating criteria are established for all sides involved, as well as the procedure of submitting and consideration of the applications for the providing of financial support. The duration of one call is 90 days at the most, but not less than 30 days. To benefit from direct and annual payments, the potential beneficiaries will also have to observe environmental, public health and animal welfare standards.