Claim of massive cotton subsidy fraud
As restive cotton farmers in central and northern Greece deliberated a new roadblock campaign today and tomorrow, the government yesterday announced that over 43 percent of this season’s cotton subsidy claims were fraudulent. An Agriculture Ministry statement said 57 percent of some 15,000 hectares of farmland initially inspected were found to have been planted with cotton, which had been legally declared as such to the ministry’s subsidies department. A further 11 percent was sown with cotton but had been declared as some other kind of crop, while 32 percent was planted with cotton that had not been declared. «Agriculture in Greece cannot be based on unprincipled subsidy-hunting,» Deputy Agriculture Minister Evangelos Argyris commented. The ministry said it would reclaim the fraudulently acquired subsidies and seek prosecution of those involved. Cotton farmers from Thessaly, who want full payment of subsidies, plan to block sections of the Athens-to-Thessaloniki national road today. Their colleagues in Macedonia and Thrace were also discussing action.
