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Agriculture: Farmers says crop and sunflower crops to record high losses because of drought
Corn crops will record high losses this year, of over 30%, because of the drought, while sunflower crops will recorded losses to exceed 25%, with the situation in agriculture in terms of agricultural production being much worse than last year, the head of the League of Agricultural Producers Associations of Romania (LAPAR), Nicu Vasile, said.
"In my opinion, corn losses will be more than 30%. We are not doing very well with sunflower either. Sunflower is currently being harvested, but I think there will be more than 25% losses here as well. In the south of Romania, these crops have disappeared, they have already been harvested," stated the head of LAPAR.
He says that this year there were big problems with bean, pea and soy crops, and Romania even ended up importing 45,000 tonnes of beans from Egypt.
"Romania cannot support more than 600,000 hectares of sunflower, if we are to respect the crop rotation, but taking into account that we have no industry lef, we have no demand for textile plants either. We can't really do anything anymore, if we have a broken industry. We don't even produce beans anymore. We imported 45,000 tonnes of beans from Egypt," explained Nicu Vasile.
Regarding the wheat crops obtained this year, the LAPAR leader emphasised that in the areas where there were precipitations, the production was good, but not in the southern Romania, and not in the Baragan area, where rain was scarce.
On the other hand, the head of LAPAR mentioned that other types of investments must be addressed in the irrigation area if we want to develop, namely irrigation from deep wells, irrigation systems from lakes and reservoirs.
"If we are discussing irrigation, we should also talk about these water storage basins. I was looking at the Hungarians and they want to reach water storages of one million cubic metres. We don't have any. In my opinion, we should also address this problem: irrigation from deep wells versus irrigation system from lakes and rivers," he explained.
Regarding the aids promised by the authorities to the farmers affected by the drought, Nicu Vasile believes that they clearly need to be helped, but the only viable and necessary solution for the coming years would be a country strategy on the agricultural sector.
"The subsidies go to the industry, although you should find them in your basket every day when you go to the store. When the subsidy comes, it immediately goes to the machines. How do you explain the increase in the prices of the machines then? If a year ago a machine was worth let's say 100,000 euros, now it easily exceeds 250,000 euros. Some people say that the materials are more expensive, because of the war, because of Putin. Unfortunately, is is nothing else but marketing bullshit. Basically, this is nothing else but decapitalising Romanian businesses. The 200 euros in subsidy are for nothing, if the increase in the price of fertilizers is of 700%," explained the leader of the organization.
Last but not least, he emphasised that the project announced by the Minister of Agriculture, Florin Barbu, through which the Romanian state will ensure 7 million hectares in drought, is a good mechanism that has been talked about for over 30 years.
"We have already been discussing this system for 30 years now, and finally he had the courage and took the first step. The Ministry of Finance stopped 3% of the subsidies going to farmers for the risk fund, and the European Union will come with another 17 million euros annually. It's a good mechanism for agriculture," added the leader of the League of Agricultural Producers' Associations from Romania.
In this context, the head of LAPAR concluded that the situation in agriculture in terms of agricultural production is much worse this year than last year, but surely measures must be taken for next year as well.
According to the data of the National Institute of Statistics (INS), Romania obtained, last year, a wheat production of 9.635 million tonnes, from an area of 2.208 million hectares, while the production of grain corn was 8.522 million tonnes of 2.373 million hectares. For the sunflower harvest, it was 2.028 million tonnes, in 2023, and was obtained from an area of 1.089 million hectares.