Seven farming associations are unhappy with the draft Budget for 2011, which provides for only 250 million lei for the farm subsidization fund. Their representatives request the Government to at least double the subsidization fund, threatening with protests in case of failure, Info-Prim Neo reports. Alexandru Slusari, president of Uniagroprotect Farmers’ Union, told a press conference that 250 million lei were enough only to cover what the Government owed in subsidies for 2010. “2007-2009 were years when farmers worked at a loss. Only in 2010, they began to reduce debts a little. However, over the last 3-4 months we faced a rapid rise in prices of resources necessary to farming, which is a big blow to investment plans”, said Slusari. According to him, many farmers plan to create modern multiannual plantations, to buy machinery, to create post-harvesting infrastructure of refrigerators, and other investments. Now, because of the small subsidy fund, they can’t put these plans into practice. Aurelia Bondari, executive director of National Federation of Farmers in Moldova AgroInform, stressed that agriculture was the base of economy and supporting farmers should be a priority for the Government and Parliament. “This year we are proposed a significantly lower amount of investments and finances than the previous years. That’s why we think this is a superficial attitude towards this sector and farmers are annoyed by it”, said Vasile Marzenco, manager of Farmers’ National Federation in Moldova. He explained that farmers expected the current Government to yearly increase the fund. The executive director of Fruit Farmers’ and Exporters’ Association Moldova-Fruct, Igor Gorasov, said this year was an opportunity for a qualitative leap in agriculture, if funds were directed to investments in agriculture and not to consumption or buying of expensive goods. “If the potential investor is attracted into the business, we will have a chain of socioeconomic effects: jobs, employment, education, etc.”, he said. Representatives of the 7 organizations, Uniagroprotect Farmers’ Union, National Federation of Farmers in Moldova AgroInform, Farmers’ National Federation in Moldova, Fruit Farmers’ and Exporters’ Association Moldova-Fruct, Moldovan Fruit Farmers’ Association, National Association of Grape Farmers in Moldova and the Association of Beet Farmers, declared that before protests, they would organize general sessions to decide the next steps.