drought

The Romanian government is prepared to allocate additional 100 million lei (EUR1=RON4.1830) to the Agriculture Ministry’s budget to cover irrigation costs over summer, which meteorologists warned might be extremely dry.

Droughts and freezing have damaged over one million hectares of crops in fall and spring, from a total surface of seven million hectares, said Wednesday agriculture minister Ilie Sarbu.

Romania’s Agriculture Ministry took measures to reduce effects of drought and is considering multiannual budget projection to improve the country’s irrigation system, agriculture minister Dacian Ciolos said Wednesday in the Government’s weekly meeting.

Drought will not affect Romania in July and August as severely as last year and the country has sufficient water resources, Marius Postelnicescu, head of Romania’s National Water Administration, said Thursday.

The year 2008 will be a year stricken with drought, according to meteorological and hydrological forecasts, therefore important agricultural surfaces need to be irrigated, said the president of the Romanian National Administration for Land Improvement (ANIF), Nicolae Maracine.

Romania’s 2007 consumer price index would have stood at 4-4.2% if it hadn’t been for the effects of the drought, Economy and Finance Minister Varujan Vosganian said Friday.