Opposition warns about risk of agrifood crisis in Moldova

Moldova’s food security is in danger, Communist lawmaker Dmitri Todoroglo, the head of the parliamentary commission for agriculture and foods security, told a news conference. The MP expressed his concern about the reduction in the number of sowed areas, Info-Prim Neo reports. Dmitri Todoroglo, a former minister of agriculture, said 235,000 hectares were sowed with winter wheat, a decrease of 35% compared with the areas sowed during the previous government. He stressed that the areas sowed with corn diminished by 40%. ”In such conditions, we cannot expect large crops. The diminishing of the size of wheat and corn fields endangers the food security. The animal breeding sector will not have enough fodder,” the MP said. Todoroglo criticized the subsidization policy pursued by the Government. According to him, 217,000 lei of the 300,000 lei earmarked for agricultural subsidies in 2010 went to pay the debts for last year. “The system of collecting documents for subsidization is extremely bureaucratized. The companies do not have confidence in the state as the budget is tight, while their costs are too high,” he said. In the same news conference, Raisa Spinovschi, a member of the parliamentary commission for agriculture and foods security, said that if the Government does not help the farmers and ignores their problems, Moldova will witness the failure of agriculture.