From Mr M. J. Turner

May I register astonishment that the leadership of the Farmers Association has chosen to issue a statement that is pure, biased political propaganda.

This action devalues the importance of agriculture and the importance of improving the service the government offers farmers and consumers; I understand that a large majority of Gozitan farmers have disassociated themselves from this statement.

The National Master Plan of the Malta Labour Party has been created to simply apply the essential expertise that will release the maximum available EU Funds for the benefit of Maltese agriculture, and of course the farmers. This is a quality that has been sadly lacking in the responsible ministry during the PN administration, which fault has cost the farmers dearly in lost, reduced or delayed EU funding. Further-more, future-funding availability has been reduced by the inability to use the current quota. This is because future quotas are based on previous usage and the ministry failed to comply or to apply in time.

The expertise introduced by the MLP will also greatly improve the availability of any necessary subsidies to farmers. The record of the MLP spokesperson shows that he has given far more support to the sector than the minister himself.

The failure of governmental expertise is reflected in the poor state of many of the agricultural, livestock and food production sectors, which nobody can deny. Further examples of failure include the unnecessary overspend at the public abattoir.

Wisely, the MLP is not prepared to release full details of its plans until it has seen the full details of the damage done to the sector which may be hidden by this cynical administration, so will only be disclosed when MLP take over next week.

We must ask why the leader of the FA criticises the fact that four of the MLP points are also in the PN plan. Why not if they are positive?

We must also ask what value the PN puts in its “guarantees” in its plan for rural development carries, in the light of the sufferings of the agricultural sectors, the abuse of the environment, the incompetence in dealings with the EU, and the rape of fine agricultural land, all under the outgoing PN administration, and despite previous “guarantees”. Farmers, herdsmen, food producers and processors and consumers should beware of leaders who preach support of such incompetence. It seems that the interest of a political party is being put before the interests of those the FA is supposed to represent.

Michael John Turner

RABAT