The Minister of Agriculture Helir-Valdor Seeder replied to the interpellation concerning the Rural Development Foundation (No 268), submitted by Members of the Riigikogu Enn Eesmaa, Ester Tuiksoo, Kadri Simson, Kalev Kallo, Lauri Laasi, Mihhail Stalnuhhin, Peeter Võsa, Tarmo Tamm, Valeri Korb, Viktor Vassiljev, Vladimir Velman and Yana Toom on 22 January. 

The interpellators find that, during three years, the Rural Development Foundation has failed to coordinate the advisory service intended for farmers and rural undertakings. As the main reasons, they pointed out the lack of know-how and the ignoring of the proposals of recognised advisory centres. 

In Seeder’s words, during three years, no official appeal concerning bad functioning of the advisory system as a whole under the coordination of the Rural Development Foundation has been submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture or to him as the Minister. In the Minister’s opinion, the activities of agricultural advising have been in continuous development during its more than twenty years history. He added that there had been many projects striving to organise the advisory system. Starting from 2005, individual agricultural advisers had been concentrated into advisory centres and, starting from 2010, the Rural Development Foundation had been assigned the administrative task of acting as the coordinating centre and developer of the advisory system. According to Seeder’s explanations, the advisory system can be developed only in multilateral cooperation, and introducing changes naturally creates insecurity. “However, the Rural Development Foundation did not act unilaterally to perform its task. It commissioned various studies and organised meetings; an agreement of joint action was formulated and signed, as well as the Estonian agriculture and forestry advisory system development plan for 2012–2020. 27 rural economic organisations have acceded to the agreement of joint action, including the majority of the advisory centres and umbrella organisations of producers,” the Minister noted. According to this agreement, until summer 2012, the idea of creating an advisory organisation had been developed on the basis of agricultural undertakings and other organisations. Seeder admitted that, unfortunately, the intentions had not been realised. At the same time he added that, although studies on the users of the existing advisory services have shown high satisfaction with the quality of the advising services, there is still significant room for development in the advising system. 

The Minister explained that the new EU funding period would begin in 2014 and Estonia was also developing a new advisory measure within the framework of the rural development plan. In his words, therefore we do not yet have a new model for funding the advisory system for the next period but negotiations and preparations are underway. Seeder stressed that all proposals for improving the advisory system are welcome. The Ministry is ready to consider all different proposals so that, in the next period, the advisory system would be as effective as possible and targeted above all at the producer. 

The Minister of Internal Affairs Ken-Marti Vaher replied to four interpellations. They were the following: 

the interpellation concerning missing persons (No 259), submitted by Member of the Riigikogu Mihhail Stalnuhhin on 14 January; 

the interpellation concerning the suspension of the reconstruction of Narva border checkpoint (No 261), submitted by Member of the Riigikogu Mihhail Stalnuhhin on 15 January; 

the interpellation concerning reduction of corruption (No 263), submitted by Members of the Riigikogu Kalev Kallo, Marika Tuus-Laul, Mihhail Stalnuhhin, Peeter Võsa, Priit Toobal, Valeri Korb, Viktor Vassiljev and Vladimir Velman on 16 January; 

the interpellation concerning the increase of the number of drug-related deaths (No 264), submitted by Members of the Riigikogu Aivar Riisalu, Mihhail Stalnuhhin, Tarmo Tamm, Valeri Korb and Vladimir Velman on 17 January. 

The Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications Juhan Parts replied to four interpellations. They were the following: 

the interpellation concerning protection of household customers (No 267), submitted by Members of the Riigikogu Ester Tuiksoo, Jüri Ratas, Kadri Simson, Mailis Reps, Olga Sõtnik, Priit Toobal, Tarmo Tamm and Viktor Vassiljev on 21 January; 

the interpellation concerning the investments of AS Eesti Energia in Jordan and in the USA (No 270), submitted by Members of the Riigikogu Andres Anvelt, Helmen Kütt, Jaak Allik, Jaan Õunapuu, Jevgeni Ossinovski, Kajar Lember, Karel Rüütli, Marianne Mikko, Neeme Suur, Rannar Vassiljev and Rein Randver on 23 January; 

the interpellation concerning the new trains of Elektriraudtee Ltd (No 271), submitted by Members of the Riigikogu Eldar Efendijev, Enn Eesmaa, Ester Tuiksoo, Lauri Laasi, Mihhail Stalnuhhin, Olga Sõtnik, Peeter Võsa, Tarmo Tamm, Valeri Korb, Viktor Vassiljev and Vladimir Velman on 23 January; 

the interpellation concerning the quality of the services of Estonian Air (No 281), submitted by Members of the Riigikogu Deniss Boroditš, Inara Luigas, Kalle Laanet, Lembit Kaljuvee and Rainer Vakra on 30 January. 

The sitting ended at 7.42 p.m. 

The Riigikogu Press Service

 

 

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