Romania's investments in irrigation must continue!
The dry hot summer brings again a lot of attention to the irrigation issue in Romania, at all levels. Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu has recently stated that at the moment Romania is not facing a food security threat thanks also to the investments made so far in irrigation systems. However, these investments must continue, to ensure an irrigated agricultural area as large as possible.
"It is obvious that we have an acute drought, primarily in the southern and eastern areas, where around two million hectares are affected. I have already had a preliminary discussion with the minister of Finance and the minister of Agriculture. The two ministers will review the priorities of the Ministry of Agriculture's budget”, stressing that investments in irrigation systems have a direct link to ensuring Romania's food security.
At the same time he expressed his regret for the fact that the sums which should have been allocated to the development of irrigation systems were taken out of the NRRP (National Recovery and Resilience Plan). "It would have definitely helped us immensely to have these sums not taken out of NRRP, at least 3 billion euros, as we envisaged”. He added his intention to make these investments out of the national budget, on a multiannual planning “because, I repeat, these calamities are primarily taking place in the south and in the east. There, there are large areas and many farmers affected - they have no longer managed to have a good harvest in the last three years," declared Ciolacu.
Agri Minister urges farmers to access European funds for irrigation
Minister of Agriculture Florin Barbu calls on farmers to access European funds that would allow them to modernise secondary irrigation infrastructure, while the government is working on (and funding) the main irrigation infrastructure. In his view, all the investments in primary infrastructure proposed in the National Irrigation Programme will be completed by 2027.
High demand for irrigation modernisation, less for completely new projects
Recently, AFIR - the Paying Agency which manages EU funds for agriculture and rural development - disclosed the results of the latest call for projects in the field of irrigation.
In mid-July the calls for EU-funded projects under the financing lines “DR-25 Modernization of irrigation infrastructure” and “DR-26 Establishment of irrigation systems” were closed. These interventions are financed from the CAP Strategic Plan 2023-2027. Below are the results of these calls for projects.
