AgriMin Daea threatens to cut subsidies for vegetable growers using toxic substances

Agriculture Minister Daea threatens to cut subsidies for vegetable growers using toxic substances.

Agriculture Minister Petre Daea said, in the context of an investigation which revealed the fact that several vegetable growers have put on sale vegetables sprayed with toxic substances with a concentration of up to eight times the permissible limit, that those who do so will no longer benefit from subsidies provided by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADR), told Agerpres.

According to the official, the authorities will monitor those who receive financial support through national programmes for growing vegetables in greenhouses and solariums, so that products which are not compliant because of the high content of chemical substances do not reach the market.

"First of all, I have made it very clear to the specialists in the Phytosanitary Authority to follow up every producer who has this vegetable programme and they are mandated by this regulatory act to check. This is the first thing they have to do. Secondly, I advise farmers not to use these procedures, as they will be monitored and those who use these means will not benefit from state support in the future. We are monitoring and this type of situations must be removed from the practice of those who seek, artificially, to increase the speed of biological processes and to gain earliness, with artificial means which they use, with substances which are not allowed," minister Petre Daea told AGERPRES.