irrigation

Agriculture should become a strategic sector and a priority to Romania, said social democrat leader Mircea Geoana on Thursday, at the inauguration of a new irrigation system in Dabuleni, southern Romania.

Romania’s Agriculture Ministry will complete by March next year the design of a new irrigation system, as the existing one is obsolete, Minister Ilie Sarbu said Saturday.

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.

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.