The impact of draught
The National Meteorological Service expects some severe drought this year in southern, eastern and western Romania.
România Internațional, 17.06.2015, 13:28
After two good years for agriculture, Romania is faced with severe drought this year. According to data provided by the National Meteorological Service, intense and prolonged drought is expected in the south, east and west of the country. This is the result of low rainfall in recent months, especially in May. Official data show that the amount of precipitation last month was one-third the normal amount for this time of the year. Moreover, the European Centre for Weather Forecast also expects high temperatures and a low amount of precipitation in July and August.
The executive director of the National Meteorological Service Elena Mateescu told Radio Romania that we should expect high variations in temperature from one day to another in the medium run and that extreme weather phenomena may have severe consequences for agriculture: “Strong winds and hail storms may have a severe, even disastrous, impact on agriculture, depending on the magnitude of the storms, as we have seen earlier.
The impact of drought is heightened by the lack of vegetation to protect the soil, warned the executive director of the National Research and Development Institute for Soil Science and Environmental Protection, Catalin Simota: “The soil, the plants and the atmosphere are an extraordinarily complex system and every factor that disturbs any of the elements of this system may lead to often unforeseen consequences.
The situation in agriculture may lead to a new rise in prices, with farmers saying the wheat and corn production will be half that of last year. A few days ago, the agriculture minister Daniel Constantin said farmers may receive compensations from this years budget if their crops are damaged by drought, but their allocation depends on the approval of the European Commission.
The minister said he requested local agriculture authorities to come up with an assessment of the area of crops affected by drought across the country. He said he was already having talks with farmers to find a way to provide them with support for irrigations. He also pointed out that starting on July 1st, Romania would have access to 435 million euros accounting for European funds and state budget contributions for investments in the irrigation network.
