The Ministry of Agriculture asks to allocate an additional 624 million lei from the state budget to replenish the Agricultural Subsidy Fund.
According to the head of the department Vladimir Bolea, the allocation of these funds can be approved in mid-April when the first amendments are made to the state budget. He noted that increasing competitiveness in agriculture can be achieved not only through subsidies, but also through constant investment. For example, another source of income for the industry will be 55 million euros provided by donors, of which 5 million euros will go to strengthening the Agency for Interventions and Payments in Agriculture (AIPA) and the National Food Safety Agency (ANSA) - this is one of the requirements of the EU. At the same time, 50 million euros will come directly through AIPA as a form of subsidy or as a grant for agriculture. “This is actually 1 billion lei that Moldovan farmers will receive,” the minister said. He also said that the Ministry of Agriculture is negotiating and has already sent a letter of recommendation to the French Investment Agency, which is ready to invest $40 million in restoring the irrigation system in the country. “This is about 800 million lei, which will also go to AIPA and become a direct support for small farmers. All this funding will replenish the already approved subsidy fund for 2023 in the amount of 1.5 billion lei, and we see that the AIPA fund to support farmers can reach 4 billion lei this year,” Vladimir Bolea stressed. The minister also noted that this money generates new money, for example, farmers receive loans from banks to support investments - in 2022 they received more than 7 billion lei in the form of loans from banks, and through Livada Moldovei, farmers attracted investments worth 24 million euros, etc. Vladimir Bolea stressed that the development of the agricultural sector is impossible without the support of economic activity in all rural areas. Moreover, as the experience of Austria, Italy, Poland, Romania and other European countries that have changed the paradigm and approach to the implementation of agricultural policies shows, this is exactly how the country's villages are developing, and today, after many years of urbanization, there is a reverse trend - population migration to rural areas. “Subsidies are not only an economic measure that can be calculated with a calculator: how much money was given, and how much will be returned. With a competent approach, they always have social significance,” the minister said.// 29.03.2023 — InfoMarket
