Who cares where the farmers’ 300 million euros have gone? Nobody! (VIDEO)

Whilst the Minister for Agriculture, Kęstutis Mažeika, is racking his brains over where to find the missing 18 million euros for organic farms, no one can explain where the €300 million earmarked for farmers, the fisheries sector and rural communities has gone. Businessman and social activist Valdemaras Jacikas has, through various means, gathered all publicly available information on the €1.2 billion distributed by the National Paying Agency (NMA) in 2025 to farmers and rural communities, but was still unable to find an answer as to where the €300 million had gone.

“That money could have been distributed under contracts awarded through closed-door negotiations or something similar. After all, the Ministry of Agriculture has a vast number of agencies,” says V. Jacikas.

Could the search for this money be linked to the raids at the National Paying Agency and the Lithuanian Agricultural Advisory Service?

Why is the Minister for Agriculture, K. Mažeika, unable to answer simple questions: will he maintain consistency and, as in the case of the NMA director, suspend the director of the Lithuanian Agricultural Advisory Service and launch an investigation in relation to the FNTT’s investigations as well?

Five days of silence from the Ministry of Agriculture inevitably raise questions as to whether K. Mažeika is covering up irregularities in institutions under the Ministry’s jurisdiction, or is he deliberately delaying decisions because he has not received approval for them? If so, what is his role?  

“Agrobitė” Editor-in-Chief Gediminas Stanišauskas, together with V. Jacikas, discusses whether farmers’ organisations should be shareholders in the Lithuanian Agricultural Chamber (LŽŪKT), given that, in the event of law enforcement investigations, they themselves could find themselves in the investigators’ crosshairs.

In the programme, we will also discuss why the Prime Minister is unwilling to reduce excise duty on fuel, including diesel, which is important to farmers. We will also discuss whether imposing sanctions on Belarusian fertilisers is a principled stance or a reckless one. Finally, why is the Ministry of Agriculture making the same mistake for the second time, having allocated over 10 million euros for sustainable investments in agricultural holdings in the capital region, when applications were received for barely 10 per cent of that amount? Might this ‘saved’ money perhaps be channelled to farmers as compensation for damage caused by frost or heavy rain? 

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