Scarce rainfall accompanied by extremely hot weather have caused a
\nsevere crisis in Romania’s agriculture, causing damage to over a quarter of the
\ntotal crops, farmers’ representatives have announced. Drought has caused most
\ndamage to the corn production, followed by the sunflower and soybean crops. The
\nmost affected area is Moldavia, in the east of Romania, although the heat wave
\nhas also wreaked havoc on Dobrogea in the southeast, Banat in the southwest and
\nCrisana in the northwest. <\/p>\n
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Laurentiu Baciu, the chair of the Agricultural Producers in Romania, says
\nproduction will be 25 to 30% lower than in 2014, causing losses of two billion
\neuros. He says that under the circumstances, farmers cannot prepare for next
\nyear and has criticised banks’ lack of interest in supporting the agricultural
\nsector and the lack of dialogue with government officials, many of whom are on
\nholiday. <\/p>\n
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The authorities have so far pledged support for the smaller-sized crops,
\nwhereas for bigger crops the Ministry of Agriculture must come up with more
\ncomprehensive aid schemes for which they need the approval of the European
\nUnion. Baciu has also criticised the delay in the implementation of support
\nschemes and the fact that farmers cannot insure their crops against drought or
\nfrost, while aid reaches them with delays. <\/p>\n
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According to the latest forecasts, the weather remains hot in most of
\nthe regions and rainfalls will be insignificant. So water supplies will be
\nscarce in almost all the Romanian territory. The subject of heated debates in
\nrecent years, the destruction of Romania’s irrigation network built in the
\ncommunist era has again been brought into attention. Costs to restore the
\nirrigation infrastructure across the country are estimated at almost one
\nbillion euros. <\/p>\n
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\n
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Speaking on behalf of the government, agriculture minister Daniel
\nConstantin says this type of infrastructure could be funded with European
\nfunds, by having it included in the so-called Juncker plan, a public investment
\nproject named after the head of the European Commission that will pump more
\nthan 300 billion euros into Member States’ economies. Constantin says he is
\nalso considering a political parliamentary agreement to pass new legislation on
\nthe rehabilitation of the country’s irrigation system in the next five years. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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\nThe river Danube, once the main source of water
\nfor the irrigation network, has also been affected by the prolonged drought,
\nthe water level being close to its lowest ever. At Bazias, where the Danube
\nenters Romania, the water level is almost half the average rate, while in
\nGalati, Romania’s main port on the Danube, a group of sand islands have popped
\nup right in the middle of the river. Experts say the Danube’s water level will
\ncontinue to drop in the following days. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This years severe drought has affected both crops and the navigation on River Danube.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":64373,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[31695,29163],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-64848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-danube","tag-drought"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n