Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Florin Ionuț-BARBU, had several meetings on Wednesday, January 24, 2024, at the MADR headquarters with delegations of farmers from Timiș and Botoșani counties, the latter being among the farmers who protested in the Afumați commune.

The issues raised by those present focused on the high costs of inputs, difficulties with financing and forced executions, specific situations with the payment of subsidies by APIA, etc.

The minister explained to those present the measures identified by MADR to support farmers, such as the full assumption of excise duty on diesel used in agriculture, as well as credit facilities, namely the Farmer's Credit and Agricultural Credit, which will be available from February 15, 2024. The equivalence of category B driving licenses with Tr1 has already been achieved through the adoption of Emergency Ordinance 1/2024, and today's discussions also addressed this issue.

Thus, the minister explained that in 2024, excise duty on diesel used in agriculture will be fully covered by the Ministry of Agriculture, and other normative acts will be submitted to future Government meetings for approval.

All these, correlated with the funding that the Ministry of Agriculture has for the current year, create all the conditions for farmers to carry out their activities without difficulty this year.

Another expected form of support for farmers is the €100 subsidy for beef cows and heifers in 2024.

MADR has allocated a budget of €16.1 million for this year for the payment of an exceptional subsidy for breeders of beef cows and heifers.

Regarding the plant sector, a state aid scheme has already been approved, granted as a direct grant, to partially compensate for the increase in production, harvest, transport, and storage costs of primary vegetable agricultural products obtained from crops established in the fall of 2022 and harvested in 2023.