Argentine farmers’ organizations under the umbrella grouping Liaison Board announced on Tuesday a national strike cancelling all trade in grains, oilseeds and livestock to protest ‘national government policies’ against the land reform and tax hike in Buenos Aires province, among other issues.
A last-minute lobbying blitz by farmers in Argentina's top grains-producing province stopped lawmakers from approving a tax increase that some growers said would force them to sell their fields.
As extreme drought conditions punish Argentina’s crops throughout the country farmers’ organizations are at loggerheads with the government of President Cristina Fernandez, which is refusing to increase the emergency fund for such situations and to alleviate the tax burden.
Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner made on Friday a deep incursion into the province of Buenos Aires farmland where she headed the inauguration of a railway line which will reactivate the train service connecting twenty towns in the area.
A respected reference in Argentine politics, Senator Carlos Reutemann came out strongly this week in support of farmers saying that the government of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, (CFK), “disregards and looks down on the rural sector”.