The farmers are dissatisfied with the way in which the agricultural sector will be subsidized in 2023. They consider the state allocated insufficient funds for this sector. Representatives of the Association “Force of Farmers” on Wednesday discussed lending to farmers and subsidization of the agricultural sector with Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Vladimir Bolea, IPN reports.

The Association’s chairman Alexandru Slusari said the discussions with the minister were heated, in parts rather difficult.

“We primarily discussed the subject of financing for agriculture next year. The subsidization fund was decreased by 250 million lei. Against a number of crises that affected the agricultural sector, the state should strengthen its support for the farmers but should not take from what was insufficient. To develop, the country needs a subsidization fund of at least 3 billion lei. If agriculture is a priority area, the authorities should find money, including the power to persuade the development partners,” stated Slusari.

He noted that the farmers’ access to financing and to loans is problematic and the farmers asked the Government to seek support from the foreign backers, including in the form of diesel fuel. The Subsidization Fund should be supplemented as swiftly as possible. On Friday representatives of the “Force of Farmers” will go to Parliament to persuade representatives of the commission on economy, budget and finance to ask the Ministry of Finance to propose increasing the Subsidization Fund when the 2023 state budget law is debated in the final reading.

Under the draft state budget law, the Government next year will allocate by 550 million lei less to agriculture than this year. The Ministry of Agriculture’s budget in 2023 will be 2.2 billion lei, as opposed to 2.7 billion lei in 2022.

By the time the news item was being written, the Ministry of Agriculture hadn’t stated its viewpoint on the meeting with representatives of the Association “Force of Farmers”.

On Wednesday morning, Minister Vladimir Bolea discussed the situation regarding sowing, keeping of fruit and grapes, the state of the animal breeding sector and fodder supply with representatives of district agricultural divisions.

“In some of the northern districts, owing to the drought, some of the farms do not have the necessary amounts of fodder, while in other districts, owing to precipitation, the planned areas could not be sowed with winter wheat and barley. The harvests in the case of field crops were much lower than the investments made by farmers,” says a press release issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry.

Minister Vladimir Bolea proposed that such dialogues should take place monthly. He announced that the structure of the Ministry will be modified in 2023 by adding new subdivisions so as to meet the aspirations of agricultural producers.