Barna Tánczos: farmers perform the most important public service in protecting the environment

According to Barna Tánczos, the Minister of Environment, Water and Forestry of the Romanian government, farmers provide the most important public service for the protection of the environment.

With proper management, not only food can be produced, but the environment can also be protected (Photo: Pixabay)

The politician spoke about this in Csíkszereda on Saturday morning, at the opening of the conference organized as part of the Csíkszéki Farmers’ Days. The minister – who is the RMDSZ senator of Csíkszék – believed: There is no agriculture without environmental protection, and there is no environmental protection without agriculture, therefore not only the Ministry of Agriculture, but also the Ministry of Environmental Protection must pay special attention to the farming community. He believed that, for the first time in Romania, there is a chance that the Ministry of Environmental Protection will pay off the accumulated debts to farmers by the end of the year. He mentioned: when he took over the management of the ministry, he inherited hundreds of millions of lei, such a debt accumulated over several years. The ministry did not pay the allowance for protected forests, nor did it compensate for wildlife damage or the preservation of forests. Since then, it has been possible to get to the point where the ministry no longer has any debt for 2021, and most of the debts for 2022 have been paid. He added: in order to end the year debt-free, they should receive a 70 million lei (5.6 billion HUF) item in the next budget adjustment.

The minister found the payment of subsidies for Natura 2000 areas still unresolved

He believed that if the protection of valuable areas only means restrictions, and this is not accompanied by subsidies, then there is no environmental protection. Neither the bear nor the forest can be protected from the armchair, on social media, he said. At the opening of the conference, Csaba Gyuricza, rector of the Hungarian University of Agricultural and Life Sciences, spoke about how the university and its legal predecessors have been participating in the agricultural training of young people in Székelyföld for thirty years, and new courses are being launched in Székelyföld according to the needs. Among them, he mentioned the pálinka master and eco-management courses. He also added that during their training in Székelyföld, village farmers were assured that they could keep up with rapidly developing science. As part of the Csíkszék Farmers’ Days, after the scientific conference, a tractor parade will be held in Csíkszentsimon on Sunday, followed by a wheat gathering, in which the presidents of the municipalities of Kovászna, Hargita and Maros counties will also participate.

MTI