Farmers on 100 Million Lei Aid: This Money Is a Drop in the Bucket

On 20 August, farmers met with Prime Minister Dorin Recean to discuss the deplorable situation in agriculture. The farmers were dissatisfied with the meeting, saying that many populist statements were made. “The situation in agriculture is very severe. In fact, we are bankrupt because we can no longer cope with payments. As for maize we have suffered 100% damage, about 80% of sunflower is afflicted. That is why we appealed to the authorities, it was an invitation to dialogue, not barricades. The demands were the same as 3 years ago: the introduction of a state of emergency, long-term measures, reports noi.md. A state of emergency will stop enforcement action. The calculation of fines will stop automatically and farmers will not be under the pressure of enforcement. But we are left virtually alone with the bank in a situation when we have no crops. For 3 years now we have had the same answers and delay in taking the necessary measures,” Dinu Todos, a farmer from Cahul district, told the Rezoomat programme. Any help is welcome, but as a long-term solution, it is nothing. If you distribute these 100 million lei to all the districts, it is not much. This money is for the press, so that the government can say: “We helped them!”. And a farmer from Falesti, Serghei Ivanov, said that the situation is disastrous. “When we see the steps being taken in agriculture, it makes our hair curl. A lot of populist statements are made. We have been sounding the alarm for years. We did not ask for money from the budget, because we knew there was no money, we were only waiting for funds from external partners. For agriculture, this 100 million is like drops in the ashes. It hurts me to see this, because besides the fact that it is a small amount of money, we wonder what kind of leaders we have in this country. We said that we do not want money from the budget, let them give it to pensioners.” The farmers said they would apply to foreign embassies accredited in Moldova because, in their opinion, the serious situation in agriculture is already a social catastrophe. “This situation can be stopped with the establishment of an emergency. Perhaps appeals to external partners will be made through ambassadors, because the government does not want to listen to us. If we are not heard in the future, we will go out to protests. The authorities are either deliberately making us to take to the streets or they have another plan. We demand the resignation of the Minister Bolea and his replacement with a person who understands us.” We would like to remind that Prime Minister Dorin Recean and Deputy Prime Minister, Agriculture and Food Minister Vladimir Bolea today discussed with several farmers and representatives of breeders of cereals, oilseeds and sugar beet the ways to overcome the difficult situation faced by the agricultural sector as a result of drought and extreme temperatures this summer. During the dialogue, the prime minister said that in the next two weeks, the government would allocate 100 million lei from the Agricultural Intervention Fund to compensate the losses incurred by the agricultural producers.