The authorities must declare a state of emergency in agriculture and make available the necessary funds to cover the losses of farmers caused by the terrible drought facing Romania, the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) requests in a release sent to AGERPRES.
"Romania is facing one of the most severe droughts in recent history, being the most affected country in the European Union. Due to the extreme drought, the EU risks losing 800,000 tonnes of corn, half of this quantity being from Romania. (.. .) The indifference of the PSD-PNL government towards the Romanian farmers in the context of the devastating drought is unacceptable. After they did everything possible to remove from the PNNR the amounts allocated for investments in the national irrigation system, they are now passing the blame from one side to another, while the whole country is facing a terrible drought. If they don't have solutions, then the state of emergency should be declared in agriculture and the necessary funds should be made available to cover the losses of the farmers", the AUR release reads.
AUR representatives add that the harvests of Romanian farmers "are melting under the heat of the last weeks".
"The losses caused exclusively by the drought this year amount to 1.8 billion euros. Added to this there are the costs necessary to finance the crops, which also total approximately 1 billion euros, money that the farmers will never recoup", the release mentioned.
According to AUR, the situation of Romanian agriculture has been known for many years, but nothing has happened.
"Romanian farmers are at the mercy of the rain because, after 1989, all the governments that came to power destroyed the irrigation system instead of developing it. The farmers have lost hope that the irrigation authorities will save their crops, being dependent of the meteorological forecasts to obtain the necessary water", the press release also says.
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