MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE DANIEL CONSTANTIN: "The future government will be able to allocate money for irrigations annually"

The Chamber of Deputies yesterday voted the allocation of more than 1 million Euros in the irrigation systems, between 2016 and 2020, as expected by minister of Agriculture Daniel Constantin, who was present yesterday at the third edition of the BURSA conference "PROFITABLE AGRI-BUSINESS" Conference.

He announced, during the conference, that he is optimistic that the Law of irrigations will pass the vote in the plenum of the Parliament, saying that he has succeeded in convincing the opposition as well.

Daniel Constantin said the following, at the BURSA conference: "The approval of this law is more than a political agreement. The normative act will allow us to secure the financing resources both for the main irrigation infrastructure, as well as for the secondary one. The future government will no longer depend on the Ministry of Finance and will be able to allocate annually the amount needed for the main irrigation infrastructure".

That can not be transferred to farmers, but will instead remain the property of the state, because budget funds have been allocated for the next five years.

The ministry said that the new law introduces, for farmers, the payment of a subscription, to ensure that they have the water that they need for irrigations on time. The payment of the subscription will only be required of those who operate in irrigation development and who work the land.

The Ministry of Agriculture is also targeting the development of the alternative irrigation infrastructures, because the Danube is currently the main source of water. Under these circumstances, the issue of the areas which can not be irrigated with water from the Danube arises.

Daniel Constantin said: "We need to consider gravitational systems. We are preparing an ordinance whereby National Land Improvement Agency will move under the control of the Ministry of Agriculture and it will have as its main topic the designing of new systems, which would come with certain far lower costs by using the water in gravitational system. The costs that farmers have to bear with the new performing pumps are 50 times smaller than in the old pumps".

He also claims that the water collection dams can also be used, which are currently used to supply the population with water and electricity.

When asked when are we going to have a law that will promote Romanian products, the minister of agriculture said: "I don't want to substitute myself to the parliament. We all need to promote Romanian products, which we find on the shelves of the stores. Consumers' attitude has changed and it is a good thing. I am a supporter of this idea, to have an increasing number of Romanian products. The policies that we are promoting are intended for that, to increase productivity, to integrate production. We need to ensure that we have constant production. We have talked to the supermarkets, who are complaining that they can't find products available all throughout the year, because they would like to sell them, since domestic ones would be cheaper. We need to stimulate the apparition of cooperatives, to get organized better. There is an openness in that regard".

Mr. Constantin told farmers that he has supported the creation of the farmer chambers, which have been affected by a political deadlock in 2013: "But a few days ago, we have submitted amendments on this project. We want to have that kind of agricultural chambers in every county, not just in 14 of them, the way things are now".