Don't Try to Do it at Home, Because You Don't Have Relatives Where You Need to Have (in the Goat's Asshole): Who Will Cut off the Gold Vein of Fictitious Farmers?

"The problem of fictitious farmers has been going on for decades. It is an open secret that pumpkin, radish, turnip and zucchini areas are very often declared only for cash payments and preferential diesel fuel, but this year, when considering the expediency of granting payments, pumpkin areas were only lightly brushed aside, but they were not removed from the lists for receiving payments.

 

"Paper" vegetables

 

A recent meeting of the Interinstitutional Working Group for Coordination of Priority Works held at the Ministry of Agriculture (MFA) outlined guidelines for the coming season. The main focus is on transparent land management and the fight against abuse of coupled support, in order to protect the country's agricultural sector from possible financial corrections by the European Commission. It was announced very loudly that the cultivation of pumpkins, zucchini, white and black radishes, and turnips in Lithuania has become a real headache for controlling institutions in recent years. According to the National Paying Agency (NMA), in 2025. the areas of beetroot, carrots, and cabbage remained similar in size, while the areas of these vegetables increased.

 

The main problem is that pumpkins and other mentioned agricultural crops are becoming “paper” – grown not for the sake of the harvest, but only for the sake of coupled support payments. Due to the increased declared areas, the NMA has tightened inspections: it requires photos of the harvest from 1 ha of risky vegetables, checks whether the vegetables are grown in rows on cultivated soil and predominate in the field.

 

After lengthy discussions at the meeting, considering various proposals, taking into account the level of violations detected and assessing the impending sanctions for all farmers, it was decided to leave pumpkins under the magnifying glass and discuss how control could be tightened, and to no longer grant coupled support payments to zucchini, white and black radishes, and turnip growers.

 

It just sounds nice

 

What was publicly presented to the public sounds nice and hopeful – this is how the so-called sofa farmers will be strictly combated. However, if we remember when the so-called sofa farmers first appeared, it will soon become clear that we have heard such talk almost 30 years ago. Since then, the “fight” has been going on against the illegal embezzlement of direct payment funds, with each new Minister of Agriculture who comes to office, a halter is put on parasitic farmers, but over the course of several decades, that halter has not been put on. Why? It is publicly and loudly stated that many people in power and their relatives use such an illegal source of money.

 

The areas of cultivated vegetables are increasing really impressively. For example, in 2018, 156 ha of pumpkins were declared in Lithuania. In 2024, it was 1,910 ha, and in 2025, it was almost 2,500 ha. Of course, these statistics also include the areas of pumpkins actually grown, but real growers are almost not expanding them, or are expanding them only slightly, because they will need to be sold somewhere. According to specialists, several dozen ha would be enough for the needs of Lithuanian consumers (both for raw consumption and for processing, oil, etc.). The situation is similar with other vegetables that will no longer receive direct payments (radishes, zucchini, turnips), but pumpkin cultivation will continue to flourish due to the payments.

 

Let the controlling institutions at least for one year actually check whether the pumpkin area declared by the growers and increasing year by year actually corresponds to the quantities of produced products.

 

She has already tried to draw attention

 

Zofija Cironkienė, an expert of the Lithuanian Vegetable Growers Association (LDAA), a former long-time head of this association, is tired of constantly talking and proving to the authorities that such a disgusting practice needs to be stopped, and to actually prevent the so-called sofa farmers from illegally receiving payments. “We have already addressed the Ministry of Agriculture and the National Agricultural Academy more than once, drawing attention to the fact that the areas of individual vegetable species declared dishonestly are increasing by 500 hectares or more every year, but no radical control measures are being taken,” says Z. Cironkienė. “After all, honest farmers are the ones who suffer the most, the supply of marketable vegetables is not increasing, unharvested crops are plowed up in the fields or left to rot in piles, thus increasing CO2 emissions, and used diesel is blown away. Such pseudo-growers use coupled support and benefits that should be granted to farmers growing marketable products.”

 

Numbers say it all

 

LDAA expert Z. Cironkienė provides interesting statistics on how much vegetables are purchased from declared areas in general. For example, from declared hectares of pumpkins.

 

“Let’s analyze last year’s vegetable declaration and purchase data,” the interviewee suggests. “In 2025, 2,484 ha of pumpkins, 1,769 ha of black and white radishes, 648 ha of zucchini, and 220 ha of turnips were declared in Lithuania. After analyzing the official data of the Agricultural Data Center, we see that the declared areas of pumpkins accounted for 23.5 percent of the total declared area of ​​vegetables. How does this correlate with the other amounts of vegetable purchases? In the summary of purchases of vegetables, mushrooms, potatoes, fruits and berries from Lithuanian growers in 2025, we see that 533 tons of pumpkins were purchased (this would be the production of 15 hectares of commercial farms) – this accounted for 0.7 percent of all vegetable purchases. “

 

Z. Cironkienė also provides radish figures, which are even more absurd: the declared area was 16.7 percent of the total declared area, and the purchase was only 22 tons – which does not even account for 0.1 percent of the total amount of vegetable purchases. “The declaration of zucchini and turnips is gaining momentum,” the expert emphasizes. “So far last year, these vegetables accounted for 6.1 and 2.13 percent of the total declared vegetable area, and the purchase was 240 tons of zucchini (8 hectares of commercial farm production, when a total of 648 hectares is declared), which accounts for 0.3 percent of the total vegetable purchases. The purchase of turnips is so small that it is not shown in the data summary at all, it is most likely classified as other vegetables.”

 

Z. Cironkienė also sees a certain threat if the aforementioned vegetables were removed from the list of vegetables receiving coupled support – dishonest declarants would switch to other related vegetables, such as zucchini or patissons, which are not in demand on the Lithuanian market at all and are not visible in the summary of their purchase quantities at all.

 

What do we consume the most?

 

The LDAA expert suggests analyzing and comparing the declared areas of vegetables grown for sale and the quantities purchased.

 

“Among the vegetables actually grown, the largest areas are occupied by beetroot, because there is a high demand for them – not only for fresh consumption, but also for processing. In 2025, 1,776 ha of beetroot were declared, which is about a third less than pumpkins and about the same amount as radishes. However, 44,439 t of the harvest was purchased, which is 16.8 percent. of the total amount of vegetables purchased,” says Z. Cironkienė in numbers. “652 ha of carrots were declared, similar to zucchini, but 11,998 t were purchased, or 6.7 percent. of the total amount purchased. We can demonstrate pseudo-cultivation with other figures: zucchini growers sold 240 t of harvest from the declared 648 ha, leek growers sold 213 t from the declared 10 ha.

 

These are vegetables that are too expensive for feed, too expensive for harvesting, economically unprofitable, therefore there is no market.

 

Easy to check

 

We have already mentioned that this year coupled support payments for radishes, turnips, zucchini were refused, but pumpkin growers will still receive them. The motivation is that pumpkin processing is growing (oil, seeds, use as decorations for Halloween). Z. Cironkienė looks at such motives skeptically: "Do we really need such pumpkin areas for oil, seeds, Halloween? Let the institutions that make the decision to support these crops answer this question. Let the controlling institutions at least for one year basically check whether the pumpkin area declared by growers and increasing year by year actually corresponds to the quantities of oil and seeds produced, sales at an adequate price to real customers. In what accounting or statistics are the results of this production reflected and finally the declared VED (economic size of the holding - ed. post.) is created. If a farmer, when declaring ever-increasing areas, can only show a grass shredding unit from the means of production, does not have proper fertilizers, plant protection products, seed purchase documents, rational crop rotation is not carried out, there is no doubt as to who these areas are declared for.”

 

“A lot can be declared in words: we produce oil, seeds, which are supposedly a popular export product that can compete with the traditional production of Ukraine or other southern former socialist bloc countries. However, is this production actually produced and sold? What kind of yield can be obtained and what is the production yield if there is no elementary agricultural practice in the crops, optimal crop rotation is not carried out, and the crops are overgrown,” asks the expert. “Even an amateur grower can tell how quickly pumpkins or other pumpkin vegetables (the areas of which are also increasing and are grown in the same areas) become infected with powdery mildew and other diseases without crop rotation and plant protection. We have provided only the number of products purchased for fresh consumption. According to our calculations, the Lithuanian market is currently unable to purchase more than 50 hectares of pumpkins grown for fresh consumption. If you can find statistics from the remaining 2 thousand hectares of pumpkin area, it would be and we are interested in getting to know each other.”

 

Why work?

 

Does the fact that coupled support was refused to turnip, zucchini, and radish growers this year mean that real growers will not receive it? “Due to dishonest declarants, real growers lose about half of the amount of coupled payments. I think that real growers who grow products that are removed from the lists for sale would not suffer, because they would continue to earn by selling their products and would receive higher payments for other vegetables. In this case, the dishonest ones would suffer,” says Z. Cironkienė.

 

The interviewee ironically says: “Why grow grain and risk the price when you can fictitiously declare hundreds of hectares of questionable vegetables, receive about 500 euros in payments per 1 ha and a higher excise duty rate for fuel than for grain or meadows, where you use it for non-agricultural production purposes? Vegetable areas in commercial farms are stagnating because they are faced with many problems, plant protection measures, lack of investment, competition with products from other countries, where growing conditions and the government's attitude towards growers is more favorable."

 

Too expensive for feed

 

Martynas Laukaitis, a farmer who grows various vegetables in the Kriūkai eldership of the Šakiai district, also grows pumpkins. He believes that up to 100 hectares of pumpkins would really be enough in Lithuania, although almost 2.5 thousand hectares are currently declared. “Lithuania can now grow even several hundred hectares of pumpkins, including those intended for oil pressing,” says M. Laukaitis. “So, still close to 2 thousand hectares are fictitious. About 250 hectares of zucchini are currently declared, but our domestic market would need perhaps only 10 hectares. So, 25 times more. Almost the entire area of ​​black radishes is fictitiously declared. In reality, 1 ha would be enough for our market.”

 

When asked if pumpkins, turnips, or other fictitious vegetables could be used for feed, M. Laukaitis answers very simply: “These are too expensive vegetables for feed, too many costs when harvesting, economically unprofitable, so there is no market.”

 

Direct payments are paid for the total declared areas of all vegetables, divided by hectares. Therefore, the more fictitiously declared areas, the more the financial basket for real farmers decreases.

 

The so-called sofa farmers

 

These are landowners who have nothing to do with agriculture, but who have acquired relatively small areas of agricultural land in one way or another and are only declaring them for direct payments and the possibility of receiving preferential diesel without excise duty. Quite often, due to inspectors, land areas are sown and planted with vegetables that are unnecessary to anyone, which are sometimes not even removed after the harvest, but simply watered. Other fictitious farmers rent the land to real farmers who work it, but the payments are collected by the landowners, who usually live in the city and, sitting in front of the TV, receive money for nothing.”

 

Because Lithuanian land is nothing, suitable only for German military training grounds. But Greek land is a valuable asset here. That's why younger Goat is moving there.