The authorities came with a legislative proposal concerning subsidization in agriculture and rural areas, which contains provisions borrowed from EU practices and from Romania’s experience. The document specifies the support measures and the payments that the farmers will obtain in the subsidization process, a new classification of farmers and the conditions that these need to fulfill. Farmers consider the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry’s proposal is good, but they should get direct payments and the subsidization fund should be much larger for the situation to be similar to that in the EU, IPN reports, with reference to RFE/RL’s Moldovan Service.
One of the novelties is that the farmers will be able to get money from the state at each stage of implementation of an investment project, such as the setting up of super-intensive orchards, up to its completion. Special attention will be devoted to the protection of the soil and farmers applying for subsidies will be obliged to undertake related commitments. Also, the Agency for Intervention and Payments in Agriculture will be turned from administrative authority into self-managing public institution.
According to the executive director of the National Farmers Federation Vasile Myrzenko, the new provisions leave room for maneuvering for later amending the subsidization regulations. They consider the minimum area eligible for subsidies should be smaller so that more very small farmers have access to financing. The subsidization fund should be fixed by law at 8% of the state budget revenues, which is about 5 billion lei in the current conditions, Myrzenko stated for RFE/RL’s Moldovan Service.
The executive director of the association “Force of Farmers” Alexandru Slusari said the direct payments for farmers should be clearly regulated as they cannot be paid in the absence of a register of farmers or a dedicated information system. “If we want to adjust the national legislation to the European one, we must realize that the direct payments represent the basic subsidization in the European Union. From our viewpoint, there are possibilities of providing direct payments, especially because the excise duty on diesel fuel is refunded as direct payment per hectare. This very important payment should not be blocked,” stated Alexandru Slusari.
The National Agriculture and Rural Development Fund next year will total 1.5 billion lei. In 2022, the same sum was earmarked, but was later raised to 1.75 billion lei.
