For nine months now, the vice-chair of the SMER-SD party Richard Takáč has been the Slovak minister of agriculture and rural development. But as he himself pointed out, instead of creating strategies for the future, he is forced to deal with problems popping up from every direction.
What is the state of agriculture in Slovakia?
Since I took office, I feel more like a firefighter than a minister of agriculture. I am constantly putting out fires caused by the ineptitude of my predecessors. At the ministry, literally any drawer you open, a problem jumps out at you, caused by my predecessors’ indolence. Direct payments, the Land Fund, local action groups, registers... I would love to deal with the future, strategy, common agricultural policy, and the challenges ahead, but instead, we are still chasing our tails.
Do you cooperate with Czech farmers in any way? Do you have anything in common?
We work very closely and intensively with Czech farmers; for instance, in the area of support payments and direct payments (PPA), we are also inspired by the registers you have, and I really like the Farmer portal that you‘ve launched in Czechia. Our agriculture systems are very closely connected, my first foreign visit was to the Czech Republic, and I still have very strong memories of it. On July 1st, I welcomed the first foreign agricultural minister to visit Slovakia – the Czech Minister Marek Výborný – in Topoľčianky.
As vice-chair of SMĚR-SD, are you satisfied with the results of the recent European election?
The European election and especially the pre-election campaign in Slovakia were marked by the assassination attempt on Prime Minister Robert Fico. It happened on the day our party was supposed to start a series of meetings. Naturally, we ceased all activities. Considering this fact, SMER’s results in the European election are good. Five of the fifteen Slovak MEPs will be from SMER, which is more than the previous three.
Will you advocate for better conditions for farmers in the EU?
The essential thing is that a strong Slovak voice will be heard in Brussels. Our fellow SMER members who were elected are a guarantee that the items up for debate in the EP will be communicated to the Slovak government and that Slovak interests will be coordinated with the ministers. As for agriculture, many decisions from Brussels affect the daily lives of farmers. In the last election term, my colleague MEP Katarína Roth Neveďalová and I managed to stop the nonsensical directive on fees for “cow farts,” for instance. We must be wary of such absurdities from Brussels-based bureaucrats. Excessive bureaucracy and the nonsensical Green Deal must give way to common sense. The European Union is supposed to help us, not disadvantage us as a country. At the same time, we must also be an equal partner with strong pro- Slovak arguments.
You border Ukraine, a country still at war. How do you feel about this conflict two years since it began?
In SMER-SSD, we have been saying from the beginning that this conflict has no military solution. After taking office, we stopped sending military supplies to Ukraine. Peace talks are the next step. Slovak and European farmers and, ultimately, consumers are affected by the import of agricultural commodities. Our farmers cannot compete with their prices. Ukrainians do not have to comply with strict European standards for growing and breeding. I am personally convinced that if we want to protect our consumers and provide them with healthy food, the conditions set for our producers must also be met by producers from third countries. We can import wheat from Ukraine and poultry from Brazil, but it must meet the same standards as wheat and poultry produced here.
You recently attended a wonderful event in Východná. What was it about?
Ovenálie is a Slovak sheep farming festival, apparently the largest in Central and Eastern Europe, at least in terms of the number of participants in the sheep and goat cheese competition. In Východná, we saw demonstrations of sheep farming work, whip-cracking, sheep shearing, and a competition for the best cheese pie. We looked for the best one among dozens of sheep and goat cheeses to award the winning producer the title of master cheesemaker. Sheep farming is part of our tradition, it is beautiful, and even tastes wonderful!
CV BOX
Richard Takáč (born May 10, 1982, in Prievidza) is the Slovak minister of agriculture and rural development and vice-chair of the SMER-SD party.
In 2005, he completed his studies at the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, majoring in phytotechnics at the Faculty of Agrobiology and Food Resources. He then became a member of the advisory body of the Ministry of Education and joined the Slovak Land Fund, where he worked until 2011.
He then gradually served as the director of Land Trading SK, s. r. o., and SlovSofa, s. r. o. In 2013, he became a representative of the Trenčín Region. Ten years later, he was elected as a member of the Slovak National Council In October 202????, he took the seat of minister of agriculture.
He is single, childless. His father worked as a miner, his mother as a saleswoman. His favorite mottos are “Many people will tell you that it can’t be done or that you can‘t do it. That’s when you should turn around and say: just watch!” and „Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.“
