Council identifying efficient solutions in agriculture to work in Moldova

Chisinau, 13 February /MOLDPRES/ - The Agriculture and Food Industry Ministry (MAIA) will create a Council made up of farmers, specialists and consultants anchored in the realities of Moldova and the region. This council will be in permanent touch and discussions with the producers from all regions, in order to come up with efficient solutions for the sector. Deputy Prime Minister, Agriculture and Food Industry Minister Vladimir Bolea made statements to this effect at a news conference today. He specified that the structure would convene at a meeting till the end of this week.       

The official reviewed all the state’s investment projects in the agro-industrial sector for 2023-2024, noting that this assistance would be provided ‘’strategically, targetedly, on the dimension of the value chains.’’ ‘’The state’s attitude will be based in the principle that you cannot have a more important sector and a less important one. The agriculture is a complex sector, in which any mechanism has value and importance,’’ Bolea noted.    

The deputy PM referred to the producers of cereals, many of whom returned to protests, blocking important roads of the country. ‘’It is true that the producers of cereals for export are in a complicated situation, triggered, first of all, by the war in Ukraine, when the prices collapsed. But we have here different situations too – farmers who last year had harvests of 6 tons per one hectare and producers who got 1-1.5 tons per one hectare. Or this is namely what the targeted assistance means, when one cannot generalize and it is necessary to help those for whom it is more difficult,’’ Vladimir Bolea also said.     

Asked about the protests of the farmers who blocked the road to the Leuseni Customs on 12 February, the deputy PM said that no application with claims in this respect had been submitted to the Agriculture Ministry. ‘’For me to come up with comments, I must have an official approach, know what they demand,’’ Bolea stressed.

„The agriculture is an economic branch or also the attitude of those who deal with it must be consequent, with economic interest and prosperous business, with component of study, scientific and practical. And the most important thing is that, if we do not take into account the regional situation, we will not get to have a profitable and advanced agriculture,’’ Deputy PM Vladimir Bolea said.    

In the first month of 2024, the Agency of Investments and Payments for Agriculture (AIPA) disbursed to farmers accounts 252 million lei (12.6 million euros) in subsidies. Thus, a significant efficiency was marked against the same period of the last year, when the sum distributed stood at 92 million lei. The fund for subsidization of agriculture and rural environment is of 1.6 billion lei and starting from 1 February this year, the farmers can submit applications asking for subsidies for the additional measures of this year. Also, 50 million lei will be allocated from the intervention fund, in order to provide support to the farmers who bore losses in the wake of the calamities from the last summer. The cabinet approved a decision to this effect last week.