Have the Farmers Reached an Impasse?

The government’s half-way support measures for the agricultural sector have not satisfyied the farmers, who started protests and demanded a meeting with the country’s top leadership. But they should not wait for miracles

Vladimir ROTARI, RTA: A month after my reflections on the plight of the current situation and discouraging prospects for our small and medium-sized farmers, the situation has not changed for the better. Formally, the authorities have made partial concessions: the parliament hastily passed in two readings a bill on measures to support farms affected by this year’s drought and abnormal heat, and the government allocated another 100 million lei for compensation. However, such aid from the state has only angered the agrarians even more, as they believe that the law should cover the period from 2022, when the main problems related to the Ukrainian conflict started, and in its current form it changes almost nothing. In addition, they want a deferral of loans not for six months, but until the autumn of 2025. As for the payments, their distribution is considered unfair, as most of the money settles in large holdings, while the rest of farmers get peanuts. The farmers responded with protests, which initially covered several districts and yesterday moved to the capital. A very small number of demonstrators gathered in front of the president’s office, trying in vain to summon the head of state for a meeting, and then moved to the parliament to talk to Igor Grosu, with similar success. Maia Sandu’s representative only announced her availability to talk in a week, on 25 September, although there would be little point for that. After all, Sandu is demanded not only to dismiss minister Bolea, but also to sign the support law which is certain to have been promulgated by next Wednesday. These events, in my opinion, are quite natural. There are objective contradictions between the needs of farmers and the capabilities of the state, which is burdened with a whole set of (geo)political obligations and the interests of big capital. As I said before, the government doesn’t have many options to really help the industry. There is no way to infuse it with money, there are simply no free resources for that. Forcing banks under external control to do something will not work. For some reason, our agrarians still have a rather naive perception of the European Union, and the relevant ministry is constantly demanded to ask for help from the main strategic partner. Vladimir Bolea, for his part, says that such letters have been sent many times, but they remained unanswered. Recently, he travelled to Brussels again to call for the creation of a Development and Solidarity Fund for Moldovan agriculture. It is not reported how the European bureaucracy reacted to this. Last time I briefly outlined the reasons why it is rather senseless to expect large injections from the European Union into our agricultural sector. Why should the Europeans suddenly empathize with the devastated small and medium-sized farms in Moldova if similar processes are taking place on their own territory? Besides, it should be taken into account that even the EU resources are by no means unlimited, especially now, amid the recession or minimal growth in the member states and the need to allocate tens of billions of euros to the warring Ukraine. Moldova, however, due to both inefficient management and objective reasons, including those provoked by the conflict, has been demanding much more credit and grant funds for its maintenance since 2022. The other day, colleagues were already wondering what more than a billion donor funds raised by partners in Europe for our republic were spent on, given that the country failed to demonstrate any progress in key areas. Unless we’re talking about monstrous corruption, the answer is obvious – internal resources have diminished significantly, and now much more support is needed to keep the state afloat. That said, the areas for donations are plentiful, and at this stage they are determined mainly by geopolitical reasons. Therefore, the focus is on energy sustainability and security in order to consolidate the breakdown of traditional ties with Russia, as well as on defense to accelerate the integration of the national army with the armed forces of allies. As unpleasant as it may sound for our farmers, their woes are not a priority. And today they face a tough choice. I have already noted that agriculture is not of key importance in the structure of the country’s economy, and even the mass ruin of small and medium-sized farms does not pose global risks and threatens only some increase in the migration flow and minor social disruption. This is from the point of view of pallid statistics. Nevertheless, the pre-election period provides a certain window of opportunity to influence the authorities. Farmers’ problems arouse sympathy of the society, which still sees Moldova as a country with a strong agrarian potential and the industry itself as one of its pillars. This explains the increased interest in the topic on the part of the media willing to satisfy the public curiosity and ride the hype wave. Any agrarian rallies, especially those that end with a parade of tractors in the center of Chisinau, instantly become one of the “hottest” topics. This means that more decisive protests, which increase media and public pressure on the authorities, could, in theory, yield more tangible results. As we can see, even the recent brief speeches were enough to force Maia Sandu’s consent to talk, albeit with a postponed deadline. I don’t rule out that the president may use the meeting for PR purposes and come out with more relaxation measures for the protesters. In any case, mass demonstrations, for example, a week before the first round of voting and up to the end of the race may force officials to find some resources for more extensive support. At the same time, I understand the farmers’ associations that are in no hurry to escalate the situation. After all, the authorities may go the other way, given the considerable number of authoritarian elements in Moldova’s current governance model. There is no guarantee that the intensification of protests will not trigger an administrative or even forceful response to stop them. Moreover, the actions against the incumbent authorities will not be understood by Western partners, who are firmly committed to unconditional support for Maia Sandu and the PAS party. That is, they could easily be accused of a pro-Russian sentiment and quickly suppressed. Representatives of the country’s top leadership hint at this, regularly calling “not to exploit the problems of the industry for political purposes”. It’s kind of a deadlock. It is not quite clear how to break it. Probably, the farmers themselves are now thinking about further actions. But I still believe that under the current disposition, there is virtually no positive outcome for farmers. At least, for the majority of them.