On 9 June, President of Latvia Egils Levits met with Minister for Agriculture Kaspars Gerhards at the Riga Castle to discuss the agriculture policy of Latvia and the European Union (EU).
Egils Levits and Kaspars Gerhards discussed common agricultural policy, direct payments, agriculture policy dialogue under Portuguese EU Council presidency and COVID-19 support to farmers.
Climate, biological farming and biodiversity were the main issues discussed during the meeting. Officials exchanged views on what Latvia needs to do to help EU attain its climate neutrality goals and ways of incentivising switch to circular economy and sustainable farming in the Latvian countryside. According to President Levits, depopulation of Latvian countryside is one of the key challenges, which requires a strategic solution to make Latvia a truly green EU country capable of supplying healthy food products. Although Latvia will need to invest more across all sectors of the economy to help achieve the ambitious EU emission reduction targets by 2030 and become climate neutral by 2050, and there will be challenges and problems along the way, everyone must clearly work towards these strategic goals, stressed Egils Levits. He also asked Minister Gerhards about control systems created by Latvia to prevent excessive use of pesticides on fields in Latvia and how that affects the food safety.
Another topic discussed by officials was government relief to small farmers affected by the pandemic in 2021. Altogether 3 million euro are available under the aid programme. Funding is intended for small farmers looking to balance their manufacturing. It should also encourage farmers to enter the market and help retain population in the Latvian countryside, as well as preserving rural landscapes.
Employment is one of the challenges affecting rural regions of Latvia. There is a shortage of seasonal workers in particular.
President praised the higher education reform approved by Saeima yesterday and stressed that this is a good chance for Latvian University of Life Sciences and Technologies to improve its rankings as educational establishment and centre of excellence in its scientific field.
Meeting concluded with a discussion about the forthcoming UN Food Systems Summit in September. President has agreed to take part in the Summit to share Latvia’s experience in the field of food quality and safety, agricultural cooperatives and other areas.