Romanian farmers have serious difficulties in cultivating their lands due to the drought that devastates not only a harvest but the very quality and richness of the soil both in the short term and in the coming years.
In the southwest of Romaniafarmers understand that, given the situation of the soil, they cannot even prepare it for the next autumn planting. They also suffer significant financial losses due to the damage suffered by the last harvest due to a drought to which they are not accustomed. A situation that adds to the already traditional ones of burden of Romanian agriculture.
Michael Nicholas He is a farmer in the town of Olt. I have never seen working conditions like these this season: “We can’t prepare, because, look at these clods! The soil breaks, we can’t stop it, if you put the plow to work the land, it doesn’t make the furrow. These clods come out. So we can’t plow“.
Nicola explains that “There has been very high temperatures for a long period. This destroyed the corn crops, even those that were irrigated. I saw an irrigated corn crop, and the heat stopped its development, destroyed it“.
Government support… in October
The farmers have requested the provision of aid and financial support to the Romanian Minister of Agriculture, after a long period of conflictto be able to continue cultivating their own lands. The Ministry has promised them 200 euros per hectare in aid, but they will not arrive until October.
There is not the slightest moisture in the ground, which makes cannot absorb fertilizers nor is it prepared for sowing of the next harvest. Without money and with thousands of uncultivated hectares, farmers in southwestern Romania are pinning their hope on help while drought threatens with causing even more damage to their livelihood.
Additional sources • Enrique Barrueco (Voice-over)
