Farmers from the Republic of Moldova have been organising protests for 5 days in a row. First, they gathered in several Moldovan localities, asking the authorities to respond to their demands. Afterwards, they set off for Chisinau.

The main demands of farmers are related to declaring the state of Emergency in Agriculture, that allowing farmers to reschedule their debts, exemption from the payment of income and land taxes for a period of 12 month, covering the costs with raw material, as well as the damages caused by hail fall and drought.

The protesters complained that their requests are not heard by authorities and, as a consequence, they were forced to organise protests as a measure of last resort. “If we are not heard by the authorities and do not get any results, we are willing to protest for a week or two on the road,” farmers said.

“We will not harvest corn at all, neither sunflower, nor grape.” “We sowed barley – nothing, then we sowed corn over barley – and again nothing. We record losses only.”

As an answer to the protests, Prime Minister Ion Chicu said that support will be provided, but only in budget’s limits. The Executive has allocated 200 million lei to subsidise the farmers losses for crops that were sown in the fall. During the discussions between the Government and the representatives of farmers’ associations and federations from Moldova, the farmers asked for a substantial increase of subsidies from 1050 lei (proposed by the Government) to 3000 lei / ha. The prime minister mentioned that this would impossible in the conditions of a budget deficit of 17.5 billion lei.

According to some estimations, around 180 000 hectares of crops that were sown in the fall were severely affected by the drought, the damage reaching over 900 million lei. In Ștefan-Voda district alone, over 23 000 hectares of agricultural land were affected, the amount of losses exceeding 185 million lei. For Stefan-Voda, the Government approved compensations in a total amount of 25 million lei.

Ion Chicu expressed his disagreement regarding the farmers’ protests and roadblocks. “The government comes with support, but will not tolerate blackmail. The farmers will receive support, but farmers’ representatives can’t create obstacles for other citizens. This is not a solution and you will not receive more than allotted,” said the official.

On August 14, police representatives issued a statement stating that farmers who drove tractors to Chisinau admitted deviations from the normative framework, namely unauthorised movement in group on public roads and intentional blocking of traffic lanes.

Minister of Agriculture, Ion Perju declared that the state of emergency would not solve the problem, as it involves some additional measures and the ministry is taking action anyway. At the same time,the minister said that talks with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and with the World Bank to provide financial support in the field of agriculture are held.

On August 6, several members and supporters of the Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) organised a flash-mob in front of the Presidency, demanding the declaration of a state of Emergency in Agriculture, rectification of the budget and allocation of at least one billion lei to save the agricultural sector from collapse.

After the farmers’ demonstrations, new protests against the government were announced by PAS leaders to be organised on August 16. Here is where the prime minister suggested that opposition parties (PAS and the Dignity and Truth Platform Party) would be the initiators of the farmers’ protests, whereas the farmers would pursue to take more money from the budget. “The actions of such politicians are reprehensible. Farmers will never achieve their goal: to get more money from the budget. Last year they took 3 times more, now they probably want 10 times more,” stated Ion Chicu.

Agriculture businesses have been severely affected by drought and hail fall this year. From April 27 to May 8, a yellow warning of hydrological drought was declared. At the same time, farmers from the south and centre of the country recorded damages as a consequence of hail fall from April 30 to May 2.

Already at the beginning of June, farmers from Moldova were estimating a fall in the crop volume of 20-25% as compared to 2019.

Even though drought became a common phenomenon in Moldova, as it strikes the country about once every 2-4 years, such long-term solutions as restoration of irrigation systems, anti-hail systems, planting of forest strips weren’t massively implemented yet. “Next year, we will allocate budget money for the restoration of irrigation systems in Ștefan Vodă and Căușeni districts (south-east). Otherwise, we will have to spend tens of millions of lei to compensate for the losses every year,” promised the Moldovan prime minister.

The technical assessment of the Government showed that about 135 million euros are needed to restore the irrigation systems at the national level. Also, 20 years are needed in order to increase the forest areas from only 11.2% to 25-30% of the total country’s surface, so that droughts would happen less often.

What is even worse, President Igor Dodon claimed that he discussed the issue of Moldovan farmers with the ambassador of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Moldova. In an election year, Dodon wants to use an already known method of election campaigning – ask for humanitarian aid from Moscow and present this as his own achievement.

Photo: agrobiznes.md