Farmed out

The Agriculture Minister's position has been weakened by his own Deputy Minister, Stanisława Okularczyk.

Last week, Okularczyk told a farmers' meeting in Nowy Sącz that there was no place for honest people at the Ministry and that it was dominated by pressure groups. She submitted her resignation following the publication of her comments.

An early front-runner for the agriculture top spot appears to be Self-defense deputy Janusz Maksymiuk, right-hand man of party leader Andrzej Lepper.

Before Okularczyk's comments, Minister Jurgiel was in defiant form. Last week he defended his department's first 100 days in office, and said that he was optimistic that Russia would soon lift its trade restrictions on Polish agricultural products.

"There is a chance that a decision will be made soon and the problem will be solved," he said. However, Minister Jur-giel was unable to say how Poland was going to convince Russia to lift its embargo, and according to official data from the Ministry, the last talks with the Russian Agriculture Minister, Alexeij Gordiejew, which took place in Berlin in January, had little or no effect.

Despite the Russian im-passe, Jurgiel says that the Ministry has been up to its eyes in work. Since he took the helm, his department has prepared 17 draft bills, issued 52 Ministry orders and is working on another 88 drafts. The Minister said he had solutions to all possible problems, but declined to give any concrete details.

Subsidies however, are proving problematic, and the current administration has made less payments to farmers than their predecessors. Despite this, the Minister insists that the Agency for Restructuring and Modernization of Agriculture (ARiMR) is regularly making payments.