Farmers in southern Prahova County say that, at this time, the situation of wheat crops is critical due to drought and demand the removal of the anti-hail system which they claim does not protect against hail and, moreover, would favor drought.

Dozens of farmers, some accompanied by machinery, protested on Monday in the village of Valea Calugareasca, in Prahova County, demanding the deactivation of the anti-hail system.

According to the president of the Cereal and Technical Plant Growers Association in Prahova, Adrian Mocanu, the situation regarding wheat cultivation is critical at this time.

„I have been practicing agriculture for 40 years, but I have never seen anything like this. (…) At this time, the wheat is drying out in the field, it has changed colour, it will only yield three tonnes per hectare, even if I irrigate it from now on. I have never experienced such a drought in spring,” said Mocanu.

Farmers are calling for a halt to the anti-hail system and complain that there are no studies on the environmental impact of silver iodide.

„We are talking about 50 million euros that they are throwing away for nothing,” added Adrian Mocanu.

The use of the operational infrastructure of the National Anti-Hail and Precipitation Increase System (SNACP) does not produce an increase in pollutant emissions into the air, water or soil, because the technology currently applied in this system is non-polluting and respects the environmental protection options assumed by Romania under the framework of European policies, says the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

AGERPRES