April 8 2002, 12:01 UNIAN

Subsidizing domestic agriculture

UNIAN reported that Accounting Chamber revealed figures where state agricultural programs received only 40-80% of cash allocated by the state budget of 90% due.

The VR issued the law on stimulating agricultural production in 2001-4 where agriculture was declared a priority. The government on the other hand " failed to keep agriculture as priority".

Among the failures of the government Accounting Chamber experts named no mechanism for mortgage prices in 2001 which lead to devaluation of grain when increased production.

Another aspect here is failure of the state budget in terms of loan interest rate compensation for agricultural producers, which lead, to production cost increase and farmer's profitability decrease.