Representatives of the Party “Dignity and Truth Platform” (PPPDA) said a governmental commission should be immediately created with the involvement of the development partners for assessing the impact of the drought, frosts and pandemic crisis on the agrifood sector. The party noted there should be considered opportunity of declaring a state of emergency due to the natural disaster all over the country or in a number of districts, without limiting the fundamental rights of the people, IPN reports.
The party’s leader Andrei Năstase told a news conference that for the first time this winter, the farmland hasn’t been covered with snow for at least several days. The precipitation and the soil moisture reserves represent 25-30% of the multiannual norm on average, while the restrictions imposed during the state of emergency influenced extremely negatively the supply of farmers with fertilizers and phytosaniary products.
“Moreover, the early spring frosts affected 70-80% of the apricot, almond and peach orchards and 40-50% of the cherry and plum orchards and also the autumn rape fields. In most of the districts, the farmers’ situation is critical, being worsened by problems encountered in the process of selling products on the domestic market and in export owing to the drastic limitation of circulation,” stated the politician.
The party’s vice president Alexandru Slusari said that most of the farmers take out loans. The declaring of a state of emergency due to the natural disaster would be a reason for stating the force majeure circumstances, which would allow for negotiations between farmers and creditors and for the rescheduling of payments on loans.
The PPPDA seeks the approval of the regulations on the use of groundwater for irrigating farmland. The authorities are also urged to ask the foreign partners to provide financial assistance for overcoming the natural crisis.
Alexandru Slusari noted that the Agriculture Development Fund should be increased by at least 500 million lei for making direct payments to agricultural companies, including the anima-breeding ones, which were affected by the drought and frosts. Last week the party spoke about the possibility of identifying such funds by contracting the program for supporting companies that weren’t affected by the disaster, such as supermarkets, oil companies and others.
The party proposes that the companies affected by the drought and frosts should be exempted from paying the income tax. Another proposal is to allow the given companies not to pay taxes and contributions into the national public budget for at least six months. The PPPDA also suggests purchasing at least 150,000 tonnes of food wheat and 150,000 tonnes of corn at advantageous prices for famers for the state reserve.
