European money for the Romanian farmers

After more than a year and a half in which the Romanian Agriculture Ministry consulted with representatives of public and private organizations in the field and drafted 1,900 pages for the National Strategic Plan 2023 - 2027, the Romanian farmers and Romanian agriculture will benefit from help. The European Commission has approved the Plan worth almost 16 billion Euros. Of this amount, approximately 10 billion Euros represent direct payments and sectoral interventions, and the rest will be allocated for rural development. According to the Agriculture Minister, Petre Daea, Romania's Plan is meant to improve farmers' means of subsistence and their competitiveness. Romania uses about 40% of its budget for rural development to encourage ecological practices in areas of high natural value, in order to protect biodiversity. And in order to maintain the attractiveness of rural areas in Romania, the plan will support the creation of more than 12,000 jobs in these areas, with financing for enterprises and infrastructure.

Moreover, farmers will be supported to adopt new innovations, from precision agriculture to agroecological production methods - the minister promises. Petre Daea also stated that the new document includes a support instrument for farmers with losses, by which compensation is granted in case of disasters, the total amount allocated being almost 400 million Euros. According to Petre Daea, this support instrument must be implemented urgently, through a very strict timetable, and the expected completion date is the third quarter of next year. By the end of the year, however, Petre Daea promises that compensations will be paid to Romanian farmers for the drought-affected crops sown last fall. He admitted that the 2021/2022 agricultural year was a difficult one, which put Romanian farmers to the test, in a context in which ‘the pedological drought affected the whole country’.

This is also seen in Romania's corn production, which is the lowest in the last 15 years. Nevertheless, the minister has given assurances that the production obtained will ensure domestic consumption, estimated at approximately 7 million tons, with availability for export. Things were different in 2021, when according to the data of the National Institute of Statistics, Romania ranked on the first place in the EU both in terms of the area cultivated with corn and in terms of production, which was close to 15 million tons. As regards wheat, last year Romania occupied the fourth place in the EU in terms of cultivated area, but also in terms of production, with over 10 million tons, while the domestic consumption of wheat is estimated at 2.5 - 3 million tons per year. Since 2015, Romania has consistently taken the first place in the EU for the production and cultivated area of ​​sunflower - according to data provided by the National Institute of Statistics. (LS)