Constantin: The crops need rain in the near future

Newsroom 03/04/2014 | 17:47

Daniel Constantin, the minister of Agriculture, believes that so far Romania’s crops look good but they need rain very soon.

‘The crops look good. Indeed, we would need some rain in the very near future. If what the meteorologists told us comes true, namely that it will rain very soon and we will also have precipitation in the month of may, I think everything will turn out very well, especially for the fall harvest but also for the spring crops”, the Minister said.

Romania’s grain production increased by 64 percent last year, helped along by the less than blistering summer. Although Romania is one of the first countries in the European Union for its corn and wheat production, the country comes last for yield per ha.

To reduce dependency on the weather, the authorities admit that the irrigation system is in dire need of rehabilitation which would cost an extra EUR 370 million. The required funds are included in the future National Program for Rural Development (PNDR) for 2014-2020.

“We need an extra EUR 370 million to rehabilitate the entire irrigation system, and they are included in the next program. Association and companies in the field should get their paperwork ready because I want to start investing in secondary infrastructure very soon, in the next 2 or three years”, Constantin explained.