State agriculture support system must be improved, independent expert

Viorel Chivriga, expert of the Institute for Development and Social Initiative (IDIS) “Viitorul”, considers that the state agriculture subsidization system should be modified so that the subsidies reach the small producers as well. The proposal was made in the context of the crisis faced by the agricultural sector, Info-Prim Neo reports. The structure of the plots has changed. The areas of land cultivated by the lowest agricultural entities have decreased drastically, from 103,582.77 hectares in 2008 to 82,544.29 hectares in 2009. The areas of land rented for a period of less than three years have also declined. The number of peasant farmsteads occupying up to 1 hectare of land in 2009 fell by 13,099 units from 2008, according to the Cadastre Office. Viorel Chivriga said that a large part of the plots stopped being cultivated. This year, in some of the districts about one fourth of the agricultural lands remained crop-free. The structure of the workforce also changed. The number of people working in agriculture decreased significantly. In the second quarter of this year, one in eight persons working in the agricultural sector abandoned their work. This is a decrease of 11.3% or 53,000 people. The increasing stores of agricultural products are also an acute problem. The stores in winemaking total over 30 million decaliters, while the supplies of wheat at the start of the year were 900,000 tonnes. Chivriga considers that this and other problems that become more evident were determined by the errors committed while implementing reforms in this sector, by the lack of equity in the subsidization system and of instruments for transparently regulating the agricultural market. The expert suggested adopting measures to reintroduce the inefficiently administered plots into the agricultural circuit, without infringing the ownership right, modernizing the agricultural entities by outfitting them and extending the irrigated areas, encouraging investment in the agricultural areas that yield profit, supporting the national supply of agricultural products. One of the most important measures proposed by Viorel Chivriga is to make the state agriculture subsidization system more efficient so that the small producers also receive subsidies.