Only the Association of Bulgarian Buffalo Breeders is both “for” and “against” the protests
Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov, Minister of Agriculture Kiril Vatev and some of the farmers who are members of the Bulgarian Agrarian Chamber shook hands yesterday evening and announced that the farming protest stops.
They did not yet know that the whole agriculture already uploaded to The Tower of Babel and everyone speaks their own language, does not understand others, and there is no chance in the near future to reach an understanding. Because no one listens to anyone, and even if they listen, they cannot hear him.
Late last night, former acting deputy minister Todor Dzhikov, who is the chairman of the National Association of Potato Growers, said in a letter to the media that he was freezing the membership of the organization in the Bulgarian Agrarian Chamber.
20 minutes later, at 10:09 p.m., a second letter was sent. It was from the United Agricultural Producers Association and it listed 11 requests to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food. The association stated in a declaration that they will protest indefinitely until the demands are fulfilled in the areas where they have members, namely in Pernik, Kyustendil, Plovdiv, Blagoevgrad, Razgrad, Sofia region.
Today shortly after 1 p.m., the Initiative Committee, with organizers Ventsislav Varbanov, Dimitar Zarov, Boyko Sinapov and Mariana Miltenova, made up of 26 organizations, stated in a position sent to the media that it continues the protests demanding the resignation of Kiril Vatev. In this respect, at least, those organizations in which presidents often head two organizations are no exception. They have been demanding the resignation of the Minister of Agriculture since November last year. They state that they are protesting to “save Bulgarian agriculture”.
It is interesting that the chairwoman of the Association of Buffalo Breeders, Maria Stepancheva, is both in the agrarian chamber, which agreed with the executive power on Friday, and in the initiative committee, which today stated that it still continues to demand the resignation of the minister. At a press conference of the chamber a few days ago, Mrs. Stepancheva said that some members of the association are on the side of those demanding the resignation of the minister and she cannot be angry with them, as their farms are in crisis. In any case, the buffalo breeding association is in a kind of organizational schizophrenia, which again brings us back to the question of why so many ministers and MPs have so far failed to pass a Law on branch organizations and the agricultural chamber to bring some order to the organization of the agricultural sector.
To Minister Kiril Vatev potato growers have the following requests:
- The Government should take action and submit a request for a review of the “Green Deal” to the European Commission. This request coincides with the position of all other striking agricultural producers in Europe, incl. and with that of “Kopa Kojeka”;
- To stop the import of agricultural products from third countries, incl. and from Ukraine, which are not produced according to European standards, or to introduce eco-taxes for these goods;
- Additional compensations for farmers from mountainous and semi-mountainous regions;
The United Farmers Association has listed the following pointson the implementation of which the suspension of their protest depends
1. Preparation by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food and the submission to the National Assembly through the Council of Ministers of a Law on Amendments and Supplements to the Law on Assistance to Agricultural Producers, with which paragraph 4 of Art. 54 so as to make it possible to consider as “Active farmer” also farmers who created their farm in the year of application.
2. Undertaking a written commitment by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food for the period of implementation of the Strategic Plan for the Development of Agriculture and Rural Areas 2023-2027, that the subsidies paid per area/head of animal be transferred to the accounts of agricultural producers in deadline until March 1 of the year following the year of application.
3. Amendment of DZES 6 in order to remove the requirements for processing terrains with a slope of more than 10% in mountainous and semi-mountainous areas.
4. Change in the legislation with the aim of abolishing from March 1, 2024, the tax on agricultural subsidies for legal entities, just as they were abolished for natural persons.
5. Review of all problematic applications as a result of the checks carried out for the application year 2023 by the monitoring and control system.
6. Change in Ordinance 12 of August 23, 2023 on the terms and conditions for the use of plant protection products in order to eliminate laboratory analyses, which absolutely unjustifiably lead to unnecessary financial commitments for farmers.
7. Preparation by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food and the submission to the National Assembly through the Council of Ministers of a Law on Amendments and Supplements to the Law on the Ownership and Use of Agricultural Lands in order to eliminate the possibility that some of the users will unreasonably refuse during the preparation of the voluntary agreements their signature.
8. Change in Ordinance 5 of February 3, 2016 on the periodic inspections of equipment for applying plant protection products in order to provide the Ministry of Agriculture and Food with the opportunity to carry out inspections of agricultural machinery once a year in municipal offices agriculture, and not only in the two centers in Plovdiv and Ruse.
9. Preparation by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food and the submission to the National Assembly through the Council of Ministers of a Law on Amendments and Supplements to the Law on Assistance to Agricultural Producers and in particular paragraph 33 of the Transitional and Final Provisions to the Law, giving possibility for applicants and beneficiaries to submit to the State Fund “Agriculture” an application for support under the interventions under Art. 52, para. 1, item 1 and without authentication with a qualified electronic signature for campaigns 2025 and 2026.
10. Making a change in the Strategic Plan for the Development of Agriculture and Rural Areas 2023-2027 in order to change the rates and the budget for supporting agriculture in mountainous and semi-mountainous areas.
11. Development of risk management tools to compensate farmers for damage caused by natural disasters and market shocks.
The Initiative Committee indicates why it wants the resignation of Kiril Vatev listing a generally inadequate agricultural policy, purposeful division and opposition of sectors in agriculture, disapproval of certain branches making decisions on behalf of the whole sector.
The 26 organizations say there will be protests in the 4 administrative regions of the country. Only the South Central region, which covers Plovdiv, Pazardzhik, Haskovo, Kardjali and Smolyan, is not indicated.
They also inform that on 12.02.2024, from 11 a.m. in the National Press Club of BTA, will hold a press conference in BTA, where they will present their demands. There is no doubt which is the first: The resignation of Kiril Vatev.
#groups #farmers #continue #protests #talking #Agro #Plovdiv
