The farmers whose crops sown in spring have been hit by the drought will be paid damages from the state budget only after the evaluation made by the commissions set up at the county Prefect’s Offices is completed, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Daniel Constantin said at the end of talks with the farmers on Monday.
“We’ll try to identify the losses by each separate farmer and give damages for the concerned areas within the limit allowed by the state budget. Concretely speaking, the small farmers who sustained losses of more than 30 percent of the cultivated area will get aid from the state budget under the form of de minimis scheme. Such aid will be legislated by a Government Resolution, in September most likely and then we’ll give such damages in 2015 at the first budget revision, depending on the resources that we get”, Constantin explained.
As for the damages to be received by the big farmers, the minister stressed the European Commission must be notified, since the value of the damages is somewhat higher.
“For the big farmers, since the value of the damages is somewhat higher, we must notify the European Commission after we conclude the statistics we are working on with those commissions. We estimate that the Commission’s answer will come in a few months and we will immediately award (the damages) in early 2016, most likely. We are also working on the preparatory papers in order to request some aid from the European Commission and we hope to also get it; if not, there already is a Government commitment for the other schemes I have already spoken of”, he added.
The minister explained there is, at present, a partial evaluation of the drought-hit harvests made by the commissions of the Inspectorates for Emergencies, but it will be made public only after harvesting is completed and the exact production losses by each crop are known.
“We have received the evaluation from most of the counties, but it is not the end of this matter, it will be when harvesting ends, but the hardest-hit crops are those sown in spring, namely maize and sunflower”, Constantin said.
