The Ministry of Agriculture will start, in the next period, the payment of compensations for the drought, in the amount of 2 billion lei (about 400 million euros), this year being majorly affected especially the crops of corn and sunflower, declared Tuesday Violeta Musat, secretary of state in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADR), at a specialized conference.
„During this period, we will start paying drought compensation, worth 2 billion lei, representing about 400 million euros. Yesterday (Monday, ed.n) the campaign for submitting requests for drought compensation was completed, following as in the next 5 working days to be transmitted the centralizing situations after which the Ministry of Agriculture will actually make the payments in the farmers’ accounts,” stated Violeta Musat, at the ZF Agribusiness Summit 2024.
She emphasized that this year’s drought especially affected corn and sunflower crops.
„The year 2024 was greatly influenced by the drought installed on a large part of the agricultural territory, the third year of the drought, which especially affected the maize and sunflower crops. Although this year’s harvests ensure the domestic needs, they will lead to the reduction of the export intake, with a significant influence on the commercial balance of agri-food products. The recorded precipitations were quantitatively reduced and even absent in all regions, except for some reduced agricultural areas in the west, north and center of the country, where larger amounts of water were recorded The manifestation of these phenomena had negative effects on the agricultural crops established in the fall of 2023, but especially in the spring of 2024, which was characterized by a massive lack of precipitation. We understand the difficulties faced by the agricultural sector and we are concentrating all our efforts to offer quick and efficient solutions through concrete support measures and adaptation to the new realities,” added Violeta Musat.
According to her, the Ministry of Agriculture remains firmly committed to supporting Romanian farmers and will continue to fight „to protect their interests, ensuring food security and the sustainability of Romanian agriculture”.
„The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Government of Romania have acted to reduce the negative influence of these phenomena and compensate farmers’ losses through a series of significant measures and continue to support Romanian farmers through essential support measures allocated from the state budget. Support measures allocated from the state budget have totaled, this year, 2.3 billion euros. Ten measures from the state budget were transitional national aids in the plant and animal sector for the 2023 campaign, worth 214 million of euros,” Musat added.
According to the Secretary of State, five direct payment measures were within Ukraine, the amount granted being 472.3 million euros. About 92.9 million euros represented the state aid for diesel fuel used in agriculture. For two breeding investment programs in two important pig and poultry sectors, with 63 investment objectives, 147.2 million euros have been paid so far, with 31 more objectives to be completed by the end of 2024.
„Also from the state budget, we have two more state aid schemes in the form of grants for loans granted, in the amount of 725.1 million euros, of which the Rural Plus program and the state aid scheme Farmer’s Credit. In this we are currently making payments for the subsidies granted through the Payments and Intervention Agency for Agriculture, in the amount of 1.2 billion euros, which represents a percentage of 70% of the amount of interventions from the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund and 85% of the measures from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development,” said the official.
AGERPRES
