Moldovan president, representatives of agro-food sector discuss challenges in field

Chisinau, 16 April /MOLDPRES/ - President Maia Sandu and representatives of associations of the agro-food sector today discussed, in online format, the biggest problems in the field, caused by the pandemic and drought in 2020, the presidential press service has reported.   

„The drought brought a huge damage and the incomplete actions and the lack of dialogue on behalf of the governance left farmers alone facing a serious crisis. Till we have a new responsible parliament, the government must ensure an efficient dialogue with the agriculturists and farmers, in order to find immediate solutions to overcome the problems,’’ Maia Sandu said.    

The agriculturists from the animal husbandry sector and bread-making field also stressed the importance of supplying these sectors with raw material; one of the solutions proposed was the release of wheat from the state reserve as loan, in order to help the concerned fields overcome the crisis.  

Another subject tackled was a demand to increase the subsidization fund in agriculture. The agrarian sector needs higher and strategically allocated subsidies, in order to allow enhancing the competitiveness of the Moldovan products.   

The participants in the discussion also approached the subject of irrigation, which is extremely important for the resilience to the climate changes. The head of state asked the associations to actively get involved in the process of working out the strategy of irrigation, which is in parliament, as this strategy must fit the needs of the agriculturists and the sector’s sustainability.

„We discussed the necessity to turn to good account the potential of export of Moldovan products. My commitments remains the same – I will promote the Moldovan products and will negotiate higher quotas on the European Union’s market for more types of products, especially agro-food ones. At the same time, I noted that, several weeks ago, I had sent a request to Russia to extent the imposing of the zero tax for certain farming products, which go to the Russian market,’’ President Maia Sandu said.   

In the end, the head of state stressed that she would back the farmers, for the sector’s sustainable development, especially through the deepening of the discussions with the development partners, in order to attract qualitative investments to agriculture.  

photo: presedintie.md