Romania's government is expected to approve a program to help farmers affected by the devastating drought in the coming days, Reuters reported. Agriculture Minister Florin Barbu also announced the implementation of a new drought insurance system for crops.
Drought Compensation
The announced state aid includes an increase in state guarantees for agricultural loans, compensation of up to 1,000 lei (PLN 860.52) per hectare damaged before sowing winter crops, and a freeze on loan repayments until December 2025.
According to official estimates from July this year, the drought has destroyed almost 2 million hectares of corn and sunflower crops. However, industry organizations believe that the losses are much greater and the actual yields lower than the government assumes.
Drought destroyed crops
According to the quoted Cesar Gheorghe of Romanian grain market consultancy AGRIColumn, this year's corn production in Romania will fall to 6.7 million tons. This is significantly below the estimates of Argus and AgroBrane, which predicted 7.5 million tons or 7.7 million tons. According to Gheorghe, the sunflower harvest is expected to fall below 2 million tons, while wheat yields will reach 9.6 million tons at most.
New insurance
Minister Florin Barbu also said that the government is working on a new drought insurance system for crops. It has already been agreed with banks that it will cover "7 million hectares of agricultural land, including spring and winter crops". The mechanism is to provide farmers with compensation of up to 3,000 lei (PLN 2,580.56) per hectare. However, the head of the ministry did not provide many details or a date for the implementation of insurance.
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