Farmers’ debts written off by June: official says

The head of the Agriculture Union Fund Arba Kamel yesterday revealed that the pending farmers’ debts since 2002 will be cleared by the end of June at the latest, adding that the clearing operation will include 50 thousand farmers with a gross total of 19.4 billion Algerian Dinars.

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• The fund has started to write off the debts immediately after the announcement made by the Algerian president during his campaign trail in the province of Biskra ( southern Algeria). The finance ministry allocated the fund the amount of 5 billion Algerian Dinars as a first step to alleviate its treasury exhausted by the farmers’ debts.
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• It is expected that another sum estimated at 11 billion Algerian Dinars will be pumped into the funds’ treasury to complete the operation and move forward.
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• According to Arba Kamel, once the financial situation of the fund is cleared there will be no need for a liquidator, and its normal activities can resume. The fund has suffered for over 8 years from a financial crisis due to the accumulation of debts.
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• The new situation will enable it to invest in the development of agriculture and treat with all farmers, whose identities were confirmed, coming back to its initial task while in the past it was dealing with other sectors of activities including cars insurances.