Farmers will demand decisive action from the Ministry of Agriculture

The association "Farmers' Council" is organizing an extraordinary meeting of farmers on November 2 from 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM at the Slampe Culture Palace to agree on changes that the Ministry of Agriculture (MA) must immediately make. Some farmers will arrive with tractors because they believe that the MA has not listened to farmers' needs for a long time.

Registration for the event: https://forms.gle/auixqgeruftkpNfU8

Juris Lazdiņš, Chairman of the Board of the Association “Farmers' Council”: "This will not be a conversation about financial assistance, but about reducing the bureaucratic burden. Agriculture is currently in a crisis situation, but instead of helping farmers overcome the crisis, the Ministry of Agriculture is not taking the lead and is delaying making important decisions. Over the past 5 years, a situation has developed in the Ministry of Agriculture where officials are not struggling with European bureaucratic requirements themselves, but are putting it on the shoulders of farmers."

Lazdiņš cites specific examples of inaction: uncertainties about the timing and rates of European Union support disbursements, the failure to establish a working capital program, and the failure to involve farmers in working groups – "Already in the spring, feeling that both prices and yields could be poor, we urged the Ministry of Agriculture to create a financial instrument so that farmers could borrow working capital at affordable rates, thus avoiding bankruptcies. Half a year has passed, the program has not yet been launched, but the farmers were already due to pay their bills in October. In addition, in order to receive annual European Union payments, farmers have to spend weeks instead of the usual twenty minutes trying to enter various inadequate, exaggerated, and confusing reports into the IT systems created by the Ministry of Agriculture, which are not operational. What's more, instead of the promised increase in direct payments, even the Ministry of Agriculture now admits that they will have to accept a reduction in payments."

Commenting on what exactly is planned to be done at the extraordinary meeting, the head of the association explains: "First, we will give farmers the opportunity to ask questions to MoA officials themselves - why have the suggestions made over the past 3 years not been taken into account? Second, we will clearly define decisions that must be made immediately, additionally setting deadlines for their implementation. Third, we will request the MoA to organize regular expert working groups in order to avoid regulatory shortcomings in the future that cannot be implemented by farmers because they contradict common sense."