Immediate measures must be taken to address the high cost of production and support farmers’ income

Statement by AKEL MP Giannakis Gavriel and Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture, following the examination of the Budget of the Ministry of Agriculture in the Finance and Budget Committee

 

5 November 2021

The effectiveness and productiveness of a state Budget is measured in the indicators of the sector under review.

For the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment, the key indicators are quite revealing about the government’s performance in recent years.

The contribution of the agricultural sector to the country’s GDP (1.8%), the number of people employed in the sector (16.8 thousand), and their share in the labour force (3.8%) have been in continuous decline over the last eight years.

At the same time, the prospects are bleak.

Production costs are rising at a dizzying rate, while the available income of farmers and stockbreeders is constantly falling.

At the same time, reforms to strengthen the position of farmers remain on the shelf.

The understaffing of almost all departments of the Agriculture Ministry further complicates the whole situation.

The bill that has been tabled and is being examined to stamp out unfair trade practices against farmers is a step in the right direction, but it is not enough in itself.

Radical changes are needed to at long last bring transparency to fix prices such as:

– the operation of a public sales for agricultural products,

– the establishment of a register of traders,

– improving the institution of farmers’ Popular Markets.

Unfortunately, our livestock farmers are suffering from an unprecedented sharp increase in the cost of raw materials, which is due both to international conditions and to the policies being pursued by the government in the grain sector in recent years.

If this crisis is not addressed, it could potentially nullify the success of the Protected designation of origin (PDO) registration of the Cypriot “haloumi” cheese and damage our possibility to respond to the prospects that this opens up.

The above picture constitutes the harsh reality facing the country’s primary sector, which is threatening to crush and drive out of the profession those who are left working without any real return. If the government doesn’t understand this then woe betide the primary sector.

The government must take immediate steps to address the high cost of production and support the income of farmers.

AKEL will continue to stand by our farmers and support any policies that serve the well-intentioned interests of farmers.