Agriculture Ministry looking for cheaper resources to lend to farmers

Agriculture cannot yield high and immediate profits and the repaying of bank loans at a relatively high interest rate is currently a problem for the farmers. Thus, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry aims to identify cheaper financial resources to provide loans to farmers and facilitate access to them, Agriculture Minister Vasile Bumacov said in a program on Radio Moldova. The minister said that on February 21 in Rome he will sign a financing agreement to the value of about US$20 million with the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD). “This will be the fifth and largest tranche of the loan in support of the Rural Financial Services and Agribusiness Development Project that has been implemented in Moldova since 2001 and in which IFAD invested over US$50 million together with the co-backers. “The agricultural producers will have access to loans at lower interest rates. The IFAD will also provide a grant of US$0.5 million to support the income-generating activities of small rural companies,” said Vasile Bumacov. According to the minister, IFAD is completing the negotiations on co-financing of US$4.5 million with the Foreign Ministry of Denmark, for the second component of the project – Support to Young Entrepreneurs. The minister also said that talks are held with a Japanese mission that is now in Chisinau. They are considering the possibility of continuing the 2KR Project that is very popular with the farmers. Besides providing the agricultural producers with modern equipment, there may be installed 100 boiler rooms working on biomass in kindergartens, schools and social institutions, the minister added. In the same connection, effort is made to accelerate the creation of the unit for implementing the Support to Wine Industry Program that will work out the criteria for selecting the producers that will apply to this program. The financing agreement whereby the European Investment Bank provides €75 million for the program was approved in the last meeting of the Government and submitted to the Parliament for ratification.