Government subsidies for farmers are 'a drop in the bucket'

A private farmer, who owns only one hectare of land, invests about 3,000 lei annually, for cultivation. This sum includes the expenses on plowing, sowing, soil nutrients and transportation of products. If crop gatherers are hired, these expenses rise further. Taking into account irrigation costs and others, the investments double, or rise even more. The subsidy promised by the Government of 200 lei/hectare is “a drop in the bucket”, farmers say. Nicanor Buzovoi, head of the Cereals Producers Association, told Info-Prim Neo that he spends between 6,500 and 7,500 lei per hectare, which in favorable weather yields almost 5 tonnes of cereals. This year, because of the drought, he managed to get only 800 kilos per hectare. The farmers says that, if the Government wouldn’t intervene and let them set a real price for bread, they might cover their expenses. “The 200 lei sum is just a drop in the bucket”, said Nicanor Buzovoi. The collection of sugar beet yields varies between 16,000 and 26,000 lei per hectare, depending on the technology used, says Nicolae Moraru, head of the Sugar Beet Producers Association. The expenses are also influenced by the quality of the seeds used, and on the quantity of soil nutrients used. “Our soils have been under exploitation for 21 years, nothing went back in; they are drained out. If one wants good yields, one must use soil nutrients, and the expenses rise”, highlighted Nicolae Moraru. According to the farmer, just the seeds cost between €100 and €150 per hectare of sugar beet. This year’s yield was severely affected by the drought. The situation is better only in the north of the country. Petru Iliev, head of the “Solana” potato producers association, communicated that imported seeds cost 15 lei/kg, and the local ones – 5 lei/kg. A hectare yields about 20-30 tonnes. Taking into account that the daily wage per worker is about 150 lei, and that the worker manages to collect about 1 tonne per day, the wage per hectare is about 3,000 – 4,500 lei, just for crop collection. In addition to this come the expenses for transporting the potatoes to the warehouse. The head of the association says that this year only farmers who irrigated their potatoes have good yields. If they spent about 40,000 lei for cultivation, and collected about 20 tonnes, selling their product at 3 lei/kg, they get a profit of about 20,000 lei. Premier Vlad Filat order, last week, the identification of resources for subsidizing the producers, i.e. 200 lei per sown hectare of wheat. Same volume subventions will be allocated, in spring, for each hectare sown with corn. According to officials, there are only the first measures in supporting agricultural producers after this year’s drought. The Ministry of Finances and the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry will identify, as soon as possible, means to accumulate 12 million lei for the purchase of fodder. Additionally, the Premier ordered the elaboration of a fiscal amendment bill that would offer producers the possibility to pay their taxes until December 31, as opposed to the current deadline of September 31. According to an evaluation made by the Ministry of Agriculture together with international experts from UN’s FAO and the UNDP, the losses resulted from this year’s drought are estimated at 2.5 billion lei.