The National Association of Grain Producers is demanding the immediate resignation of the Minister of Agriculture Georgi Tahov and is starting preparations for large-scale national protests in order to protect the livelihood of Bulgarian grain producers. This warning is written in a protest declaration that the largest branch organization in agriculture in our country sent to the media. The declaration comes a day before the visit of the European Commissioner for Agriculture Christoph Hansen to Bulgaria.
Grain producers are withdrawing their confidence from the Ministry of Agriculture and, in addition to the resignation of Minister Tahov, they demand two more resignations - of his deputy Ivan Kapitanov and of the deputy director of the "Agriculture" Fund Petya Slavcheva.
The reasons - undertaken but unfulfilled commitments for legal changes in the sector, as well as a lack of policies for the rehabilitation and construction of irrigation systems and for supporting the sector. In its protest declaration, the Association accuses the agricultural department of irresponsibility and a complete lack of solutions, which leads to a severe crisis in the sector.
In order to save the "Grain Production" sector, the organization insists on immediate changes to the Law on the Ownership and Use of Agricultural Land and the Law on Lease; it demands the adoption of the Law on Branch Organizations, the Law on the Agrarian Chamber and the Law on Cooperatives and Cooperatives.
The farmers also insist on a unified approach to compensating for areas lost in natural disasters, as well as to ensure money for the implementation of the capital program of "Irrigation Systems" by the end of the year at the latest, and by the end of October – money for the repair of the "Pyasachnik" dam.
The grain producers want to include a representative of the agricultural guild in the National Water Board and expect the state, through the BNB, to guarantee the possibility of lending and renegotiating loans to agricultural producers.
"Due to the many years of crises and the lack of solutions to deal with them, we are preparing large-scale national protests," warn the grain producers.