Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu has stated that at the moment Romania has no problem in terms of food security, considering, among other things, the investments made last year in irrigation systems, investments that must be continued to ensure as large an irrigated agricultural area as possible.

Ciolacu made the statements at the end of his visit on Friday to the SPA Namoloasa irrigation system, together with the Minister of Agriculture, Florin Barbu.

„It is obvious that we have an acute drought, primarily in the southern and eastern areas, where around two million hectares are affected. I have already had a preliminary discussion with the minister of Finance and the minister of Agriculture. The two ministers will review the priorities of the Ministry of Agriculture’s budget, which, I want to tell you, is the largest ever budget. And I think we have, so far, doubled direct payments from the state budget, and with what we are now coming for calamities, with the payments for the two million hectares, we will almost triple the amount from the state budget,” stated Marcel Ciolacu.

He pointed out that, compared to last year, the capacity of the irrigation system increased following the investments made.

The prime minister emphasized that the allocation of funds for investments in irrigation systems is related to ensuring Romania’s food security.

„So, at this moment, Romania is out of any danger in terms of food security. So, we have already achieved one of the objectives, we are going to maintain this pace and find other solutions,” Ciolacu said.

In this context, the prime minister criticized the fact that sums that should have been allocated to the development of irrigation systems were taken out of the PNRR (National Recovery and Resilience Plan).

„Definitely, it would have helped us immensely to have sums in the PNRR and not taken out of the PNRR, at least 3 billion euros, as we thought. I sat with the minister, we will also come with a proposal to the Ministry of Finance to make these investments multiannual, so that we increase the hectares that can be irrigated in other parts of the country, because, I repeat, these calamities are primarily in the south and in the east. There are large areas and many farmers are affected, because they no longer have managed for three years to have a good harvest year,” declared Ciolacu.

Regarding the agricultural areas affected by the drought, he explained that different actions will be taken, depending on the degree of damage.

AGERPRES