Argentina-Farmers not happy.

ARGENTINA-PROTESTS AND RALLIES TO START AGAIN.

The administration of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in turn said that the protest and a main rally in the central Córdoba province "don’t contribute" to a solution.

After meeting for four hours with Production Minister Débora Giorgi and Interior Minister Florencio Randazzo, the four main farm leaders told the press that results of their meeting were "scant" and that they will continue to demand from the government a segmentation of duties on soybeans — the country’s main export product — and that they will also take their demand to Congress.

As a consequence of the dispute with a sector that accounts for one third of national employment and two thirds of the foreign currency income, the ruling Victory Front has been suffering an exodus in Congress that is threatening its majority in both houses.

Opposition leaders have called for an extraordinary congressional debate in an attempt to force the government to lower duties but Randazzo yesterday told farmers that the Victory Front will not allow quorum. "This is a normal parliamentary practice," he said as quoted by Mario Llambías, one of the country’s most outstanding farm leaders. Earlier in the day, after farmers vented criticism of the implementation of last week’s accords, Randazzo said that "in this way the possibility of a solution gets farther."

Asked by the Herald whether farmers did not fear that by calling grassroots to protest at the roadsides tomorrow the government could blame farmers for any possible roadblocks, Llambías replied negatively.

A four-month farm rebellion last year included roadblocks and sales boycotts that severely impaired exports and caused food shortages and price increases at home. Congress in July forced the President to rollback the sharp duty increases she had introduced by Resolution 125, to their previous 35 percent. Llambías said that the four farm lobbies agree on the need for a segmentation of duties, something that the government has been rejecting steadfastly. Llambías, who chairs the Argentine Agricultural confederation (CRA), said: "We just want the government to give us back part of the money they get from us."

The administration yesterday agreed to lower duties on wool and, honey but farmers said that much deeper measures should be adopted, for instance, they are demanding the elimination of duties on wheat. Argentina’s wheat crop is estimated to have been halved this season as compared to the previous one.

The global economic crisis, the drought and the duties have combined to lead Argentina to harvest this season an estimated 30 million tons less than the 95 harvested last season.

Eduardo Buzzi, the leader of the Argentine Farming Federation (FAA) which groups small- and mid-sized farmers said that aid for the unprecedented drought "must not be measured with selfishness."

Farmers complain that due to red tape they hardly get help the government promised them to mitigate the effects of a drought that has killed more than one million head of cattle, and they also say that, beyond that, the help actually consists of tax deferrals and some reductions in interest rates, but not of an outright condonation of debts. For instance, in Buenos Aires, the country’s richest province, farmers applying for state loans must sign an affidavit saying that they are not affected by the emergency. Otherwise, they say, they won’t qualify for credit.

Hugo Biolcati, head of the Argentine Rural Society (SRA) said that the motto of tomorrow’s protest will be "a year without responses" and that "as long as that monster of the ONCAA (grain and livestock sales watchdog) continues with its discretionality, any measure will be just cosmetic."

Farmers say that — through ONCCA and the Domestic Trade Secretariat headed by Guillermo Moreno — the government continues to pressure them.

They said that they failed to discuss yesterday the possibility admitted by the administration to create a mixed agency to regulate grain trade. The government said that any such proposal would be sent to Congress for debate.

It was only forced by the protests that the President last year sent her initiative to Congress where, although passed — by a tight margin — in the Lower House, it was buried in the Senate with the tie-breaking vote of Vice-President Julio Cobos, who she suggested was a traitor and with whom she has not been ont speaking terms since then.

The dispute has made Mrs. Kirchner’ image to dovetail. Mid-term elections are due in October and presidential elections in 2011.