Close to 400,000 hectares hit by drought damage

Written by BT/MTI

The size of the areas declared for drought damage reached 390,000 hectares by early September, Minister of Agriculture Istvan Nagy said at the opening of agriculture and food exhibition Babolnai Gazdanapok on Thursday.

The maize crop has been damaged by drought on 235,000 hectares and the sunflower seed crop on 125,000 hectares, the minister said. And the 160,000 hectares declared in the Southern Great Plain shows the special vulnerability of the region, he added.

In recent years, the damage mitigation fund has been topped up to HUF 35bn from state, producer and EU sources. Farmers took out drought insurance with premium subsidies for 715,000 hectares this year, he said.

Tenders to be called soon as part of the Rural Development Programme will support the introduction of water-saving irrigation techniques, the optimisation of irrigation systems and the development and reconstruction of water-saving irrigation infrastructure.

So far, more than 1,200 irrigation projects have been supported within the framework of the programme with a combined HUF 177bn, the minister said.