Certain political parties are trying to gain political benefits by urging farmers to take to the streets, claim members of the Party of Socialists (PSRM).

According to them, these parties were in charge of the executive last year and did not provide any support to agricultural producers, while the minister of agriculture in the Sandu Government “was the weakest minister of agriculture in the history of Moldova.”

The Government adopted “unprecedented actions” to support farmers, said Corneliu Furculita, head of the PSRM parliamentary group, during a press conference. “But two political forces, which in the past only made optimizations, are now trying to take advantage of the drought-affected farmers' situation.”

“These political forces have nothing better for you than an optimization again. Do you know what this means? An optimization of small farmers so that there are no more small farmers, no more subsidies, no more support. And this will be done to allow foreigners to buy agricultural land in the Republic of Moldova. Dear farmers, the situation is certainly complex. Drought is a phenomenon that persists for years in the Republic of Moldova and it must be combated systemically”, said the deputy.

MP Radu Mudreac stated that a working group consisting of PSRM, PDM, PAS and PDA representatives, together with the Government, has identified a number of solutions to ease the burden on farmers. According to him, the amount of VAT was allowed to be used to pay taxes on wages for farmers. Another decision to support farmers is to reschedule loans taken out from the state-operated 2KR and Mecagro. The total amount of these technical loans is around 200 million lei.

The MP also said that commercial banks have agreed to grant farmers a loan repayment holiday. At the same time, it was decided to increase from 200 million lei to 300 million lei the amount of funds allocated from the state budget to cover the losses incurred by farmers as a result of the drought.

“Never before have such funds been allocated to support farmers in Moldova, including a 1 billion lei subsidy fund”, said Radu Mudreac.