The agricultural producers receive subsidies from the state with delays of several months to half a year and the farmers are thus unable to repay the loans taken out from banks or they pay penalties to banks for not making the payments on time.

National Farmers Federation executive director Vasile Myrzenko has told IPN that many of the farmers who filed applications to the Agency for Intervention and Payments in Agriculture (AIPA) last year didn’t receive the subsidies to which they are entitled from the state, but they had to lend money from banks to make investments.

“The overdue subsidies in agriculture for last year come to almost 1 billion lei. We ask that the agriculture subsidization fund should be doubled. This happens because the fund hasn’t been raised the past few years and its resources are not enough to cover all the investment projects implemented by farmers, in accordance with the law on the subsidization principles and the regulations for allocating these subsidies. The farmers take loans, invest in agriculture, build, plant, buy purebred animals, counting on the fact that the state will partially refund the incurred costs at the end of the year, when they file applications to the Agency for Intervention and Payments in Agriculture. But the subsidies do not come as there are not enough financial resources in this fund,” stated Vasile Myrzenko.

He noted that the subsidies that are offered to famers to encourage them to make investments ultimately cause more headaches to them.

According to Vasile Myrzenko, there should be different approaches in relation to the small producers and to the large producers. The small and medium-sized farmers, even if they file applications for subsidization, never receive the subsidies by the first tranche. They have to wait as the large companies have employees who swiftly prepare the necessary documents and submit them to the AIPA and the subsidization fund in September-October is used up. It is discrimination when the small producers cannot obtain the money because the funds are utilized by large companies.

Contacted by IPN for a comment, Lucia Timofti, head of the AIPA Projects Approval Division, said the Agency examines the files in the order in which they are submitted and does not favor any agricultural producer. The subsidies are paid with delay because the agricultural producers file applications on the last 100 meters. “Since February until October, we receive about 3,000 applications and during the last two-three weeks of October, we receive another 4,000 applications. The about 7,000 applications are processed by the same personnel of the Agency continuously,” stated Lucia Timofti.