Juris Lazdiņš will continue to lead the Farmers' Assembly

On March 3, the congress of the association “Zemnieku saeima” was held at the Bulduri Technical School, where the elections of the board and its chairman also took place. The members elected the current head of the association, Juris Lazdiņš, as the chairman of the board of the association “Zemnieku saeima” for the next two-year term. In the second part of the congress, discussions took place about the “Green Course” and the near future in agriculture.

Juris Lazdiņš, Chairman of the Board of the Association “Farmers' Council”: “This year has been one of the most active and dynamic in the history of the organization. In addition to the already planned activities in agricultural policy-making in Brussels and Latvia, Russia’s unjustified and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine came like a bolt from the blue. As a result, in parallel with supporting Ukrainian fighters, we had to radically reorient the supply routes of a large part of raw materials in a couple of weeks. The lack of mineral fertilizers, energy prices at the beginning of the year, the looming milk crisis at the end of the year, the inability to cooperate with the leadership of the Ministry of Agriculture at that time in the middle of the year – these are all major issues that had to be resolved urgently, without prior preparation. In parallel with these challenges, 2022 was also the year of the Saeima elections, which we could not neglect, and we tirelessly told the candidates about the importance of agriculture, as well as the future challenges of the industry.”

The members unanimously elected the current leader of the Farmers' Assembly, Juris Lazdiņš, as the chairman of the board. 13 candidates from all regions of Latvia competed for the 8 board member positions, and as a result of the elections, 5 existing board members were re-elected: Maira Dzelzkalēja-Burmistre, Mārtiņš Trons, Mareks Bērziņš, Mārtiņš Flaksis and Aivis Aizsilnieks, but Eduards Šmits, Mārtiņš Valko and Renārs Katkovskis were elected as newcomers to the board.

At the congress on future priority works, the “Farmers' Parliament” puts forward the meaningful implementation of the European agricultural policy in Latvia and plans to actively participate in the process of creating the next CAP. Reducing bureaucracy for agricultural activities and high-quality cooperation with agricultural education and research institutions have been set as priorities in Latvia. Another priority is the search for logical solutions for the implementation of the Green Deal in Latvia between the Ministry of Rural Development and the new Ministry of Climate and Energy, as well as informing the public and farmers about current agricultural issues and raising the prestige of the agricultural sector.

In the second part of the congress, the Minister of Agriculture Didzis Šmits, the Minister of Environmental Protection and Regional Development Māris Sprindžuks, the Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Climate and Energy Kārlis Šadurskis and the Chairman of the Board of the “Farmers’ Parliament” Juris Lazdiņš discussed how the European Green Deal strategy should be implemented in Latvian agriculture in the discussion “The Green Deal – Where is it Leading Us?”. The discussion was dominated by the idea that, in the current geopolitical situation, European policies should not be blindly and directly applied to Latvian policies. Instead, there was a consensus among politicians that the positive aspects of the Green Deal should be adapted so that Latvia truly benefits from them, while the goals of the Green Deal that do not correspond to today’s conditions could be revised.