The Destructive Cycle of Agricultural Subsidies: Fueling Outrage and Arrogance Among Farmers

The protesting farmers may have disunited in their march to save the “dying” agrarian sector, but they have united society in its outrage at their arrogant demands.

Observing from the sidelines the incessant clamor for more subsidies, state aid and various preferences, the rest outside the agrarian sector become more and more negative with each successive farmer’s protest.

What other business in the country allows this insanity of endless requests for more and more? Which other sector in our country believes so convincingly that the state is obliged to take care of its business, to look for markets, to stop the import of competition, and that all taxpayers should cover the losses from misfortunes?

Social media abounds with angry and derisive comments.

Entrepreneurs ironically hint that if they fail to make the expected profit, they will stage a protest demanding that the state compensate them. Never mind that they don’t have tractors to block the roads, it’s worth a try.

Once given, aid is hard to stop. Reference – the restaurateurs who continue to complain about how they are barely making ends meet because of the international situation and therefore have to be taxed at 9% VAT indefinitely. The restaurateurs, however, are downright christened against the background of the agricultural scandals.

Appetite comes with eating, and farmers are already narcotically dependent on subsidies and aid. For years, the agrarian sector has only relied on this and that is why it exists. There is no doubt that next year, and every year after that, farmers will find reasons to ask for more and more.

Here are the demands raised by the protesting farmers, many of which the government has promised to fulfill:

– New over 430 million BGN “Ukrainian aid” for the producers of fruits, vegetables, meat, milk, mushrooms, and also for crops that are hard to imagine how they are affected by Ukrainian imports – tobacco, oil rose, wines vineyards.

– BGN 20 per hectare of cereals for farms up to 3,000 decares, without proof of losses in 2023, and BGN 10 and BGN 5 per hectare for larger farms. The government has not announced how much this additional aid will cost.

– cancellation of the Ukrainian aid ceiling of 280 million euros per farm and refund of the sums not collected last year due to this limitation.

– additional compensations for agricultural producers from mountainous and semi-mountainous regions.

– increase in the annual agricultural subsidies determined by the strategic plan for the development of rural areas until 2027.

– elimination of the tax on subsidies for legal entities in the agricultural sector, as was already done for individual farmers.

– reduction of toll fees for the transport of agricultural products, so as not to make them more expensive.

– the state and the banks should create a Guarantee Fund to support stranded farmers with working capital.

– to stop the import of agricultural products from third countries, not only from Ukraine, which are not produced according to European standards, or to introduce eco-taxes for these goods.

Whoever didn’t think of it, didn’t ask for it. Where will these claims be funded? From the pocket of all taxpayers. Why? Because the farmers gave us our bread.

Uncertain government unable to resist farmer pressure. We saw it during the protests in September and now in February. In the beginning, Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov was determined to grant additional funding only to those who prove losses, but he quickly backed down – only large farmers will prove losses. The protestors’ excuses were downright absurd – even if they were at a loss, according to documents they were making a profit. Because they had to show profits to the banks in order to get loans. Who are lying – the banks or the government?

A protesting farmer even exclaimed indignantly: how could I be at a loss, wouldn’t I have gone bankrupt?

Well, agriculture is clearly an exception to any economic logic.

Because in other economic sectors, hundreds of companies report losses, but this does not necessarily mean that they declare bankruptcy. Nor that they should go on protests demanding that the state cover their losses.

In fact, a large number of farmers are not at a loss at all, they simply could not realize in 2023 the huge profits they enjoyed the previous two years. Grain producers, for example, in the past three years, excluding 2023, have seen record profits. In 2023, however, the stock exchange prices of grain fell and now it is only natural for them that all taxpayers help them achieve the big profits again.

The peak of cynicism is the agri-millionaire from Plovdiv, Yosif Delgyanski, who sincerely exclaimed: “We are called to be rich. Because we earned it with a lot of work, knowledge and experience. I am addressing all the parliamentary parties and the current rulers: If you do not help us, this balance of our “wealth” will be disturbed. This is already a matter of national security. To postpone the bankruptcy, we will have to sell land. If this is your goal, you will achieve it very easily.”
And he called in his revelations on Facebook: “When it comes to the national security of the country, unconventional measures must be taken, even if the poor help the rich. And when the rich successfully overcomes the obstacles, he will find a way to thank the the poor, and of the state. Always in the history of the world, the poor has worked for the rich”.

This is what led to the mistaken model of agricultural development, based only on subsidies and aid, without real competition, without striving to increase productivity and efficiency. Why did farmers put up with the lack of irrigation for so many years, the lack of which they now blame for their non-competitive production? Why didn’t they come out with the tractors, demanding that the state intervene in the restoration of the irrigation systems? Apparently, the subsidies were enough for them, no matter what and how much production they made. As the doses are reduced, however, they fall into withdrawal.

2024-02-17 22:08:40


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