Development partners discuss environment-friendly agricultural policy

The agricultural producers and the civil society must realize the effects of human activities on the environment in general and agriculture in particular, Doctor Habilitate of Agricultural Sciences Boris Boincean said at the opening of the international conference “Innovation Transfer to Agriculture in the Context of Climate Change of Sustainable Development.” The conference was organized by the National Farmers Federation AGROinform in cooperation with the NGO Solaris. It was opened on Wednesday and will continue on Thursday. More than 100 producers and specialists from France, Switzerland, Russia, Ukraine, Romania, the United States and the Netherlands are participating in the event, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Anatol Spivacenco, as the producers do not take into account the effects that their activities have on the environment, the results of the investments made in agriculture and the policies promoted are not the expected ones. “The drought in 2007 caused damage valued at 1 billion US dollars. The losses this year will total about 1 billion lei as humidity was low and the autumn sowing was delayed. The nature protests and it is very bad that the producers think these problems do not depend on them,” the deputy minister said. Anatol Spivacenco also said that the fact that the subsidies in agriculture will be provided by contest from next year could stimulate the farmers who think about the effects of their activities on the environment and soil. Anatol Gobgila, expert in agrarian policies at the World Bank Office in Chisinau, spoke about the two-year program that will be managed by the institution he represents and is supported by grants to the value of US$350,000 from the WB, the Bank-Netherlands Water Partnership Program and the Trust Fund for Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development. “It is time to switch from pilot projects to the use of environment-friendly technology,” he said.