Argentina-Government minister refuses to talk to farmers.

ARGENTINA-GOVERNMENT MINISTER WILL NOT TALK TO FARMERS.

The government yesterday announced that ministers will no longer attend the weekly meetings with the farm leaders of the Liaison Committee, who are discussing reforms to the national Agricultural policy. The decision was harshly criticized by the farmers.

Production Minister Débora Giorgi made the announcement in a communiqué released yesterday. "There’s no possibility of interrupting the dialogue with the farm associations... we will continue working at a technical level," Giorgi said. She added that this new working scheme "was agreed during last Tuesday’s meeting" with the members of the Liaison Committee.

Eduardo Buzzi, leader of the Small Farmers Federation FAA rejected Giorgi’s comments, and said that "last week we agreed we would continue with the talks."

The Liaison Committee met with Giorgi, Interior Minister Florencio Randazzo and Agriculture Secretary Carlos Cheppi every Tuesday since February 24, to discuss the situation of the farming sector and measures to cope with the drought and the economic crisis that have been affecting the sector. Farmers were not satisfied with the results of the last meetings but expressed their willingness to continue discussions. The farmers demands led to several demonstrations, partial roadblocks and a week-long lockout last month.

"Dialogue would only be interrupted if the government chooses to do so," FAA assistant vice-president Pablo Orsolini said. Sources from the Rural Society and Carbap also said the farmers will not be the ones that break off negotiations.

Meanwhile, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner yesterday once again covertly criticized the farmers during a speech in San Salvador de Jujuy, at the inauguration of a children’s hospital.

The President compared Jujuy’s "socially aware" population with "those who don’t seem to mind about setting the nation on fire just to save their things."

"There are small interests that find it hard to understand that we have to be charitable to those who have less," the President said. "In little over a year we’ve lived through attacks, unprecedented measures like we’ve never seen before, but they did nothing but strengthen my convictions to continue building an Argentina of fairness and equity," she said, referring to the protests and lockouts staged by the farmers.