The representatives of farmers who met with Prime Minister Chiril Gaburici on May 19 said they will not give up staging protests. The issue was discussed in the talk show “Politics” on TV 7 channel, IPN reports.
Chairman of the Union of Agricultural Producers Associations of Moldova Alexandru Slusari said no consensus was reached in the meeting with Premier Gaburici. “The discussions with the Prime Minister didn’t change our opinion. The same uncertain, general promises were made - that they will make effort to help us. The situation in agriculture is serious. The 380 million lei allocated from the state budget for developing agriculture is insufficient. Instead of increasing the agriculture subsidization fund, they decreased it by 200 million lei on last year. To be able to cope with the situation, we need at least 600 million lei,” he said.
Slusari also said that the farmers formulated proposals for improving the situation and submitted them to the Premier. “A solution is to annul the excise duties on diesel fuel for agricultural producers. It’s known that this money goes into the road fund. The agricultural producers use their machinery in the field. It’s not fair. The agricultural producers should also be allowed to import diesel fuel for agricultural works themselves. The Government should borrow 600 million lei from the National Bank. This money would be paid back in half a year from European funds,” he stated.
In the same program, Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Ion Sula said he agrees with agricultural producers’ demands, but cannot help them when the budget is tight. “We realize that we need investments in agriculture. New technologies should be applied. The farmers face difficulties in taking out loans from banks. The conditions are tough, especially as regards the pledge. The problem related to the Polish loan was solved. There are yet several projects to finance agriculture from foreign funds under implementation,” stated the minister.
