Agriculture Minister: Irrigation System Could Be Expanded To 760,000 Ha

Romania"s irrigation system could be expanded to 760,000 hectares in 2009, by 200,000 hectares more than now, if the 100 million RON necessary for this purpose is available, Agriculture Minister Ilie Sarbu said yesterday.

"We are capable of expanding the irrigation system by 200,000 hectares very quickly, if the necessary funding, approximately 100 million RON, is made available. The system is currently operational on only 560,000 hectares," Minister Sarbu said.

According to Agerpres, the minister stressed that, today, he would present the Government with the irrigation strategy made by the National Land Development Administration (ANIF) and the Ministry of Environment, but, unfortunately, the estimated cost was extremely high.

"The Design Institute of the National Land Development Administration and the National Meteorological and Hydrological Administration worked on an irrigation strategy, but we need to restructure the system because, as it is now, the costs are very high. Although we have a strategy, the question is whether we are willing to invest, to take a loan from a bank to restructure the system. Only when we have a crisis or a drought do we remember that the irrigation system is not what it should be," Minister Sarbu added.

He agrees with President Basescu"s remarks about the functionality of the irrigation system in Romania, as the PNL Government did nothing about it for four years. "They did nothing for four years although we left approximately 1.5 million hectares with a functional irrigation system when we left the Government in 2004. In 2008, we found only 60,000 hectares irrigated. They could have gone to 3 million hectares in four years, but the tragedy is that nothing was done and everything was destroyed," Minister Sarbu concluded.