Farmers asking President Iohannis to settle their conflict with gov't over drought aid

Bucharest, March 2 /Agerpres/ - Farmers are calling on President Klaus Iohannis to mediate the conflict between them and the government over the omission of drought relief from the draft national budget, according to a statement from the Farmers' Force Association released on Tuesday. "There are a few hours until Parliament's final vote on the draft version of the national budget, and the lawmakers in the majority, despite all the calls from agricultural associations, are about to deal a devastating blow to tens of thousands of Romanian farmers and endanger national agriculture in 2021, affecting the nation's food security," reads the statement. The Farmers' Force Association, on behalf of Romanian farmers, is publicly calling through the media on Klaus Iohannis, President of Romania, to heed to their request to mediate the situation as a result of the government and parliamentary majority's refusal to include drought relief for the 2020 spring crops in the national budget. Farmers claim that the drought aid will not burden in any way the government deficit, insisting that it will produce economic growth and, implicitly, the money will be recovered by the Ministry of Finance by the end of this year through additional rates and fees. "We are convinced that, in these few hours left until the adoption of the budget bill in Parliament, a formula can be found by which the aid can be awarded. We want to point out that the amount necessary for the payment of drought aid is 1 billion lei (approximately 210 million euros). The amount is necessary for a large part of Romania's farmers to be able to set up their crops this year and to contribute to the economic growth that we so much want in 2021." AGERPRES (RO - author: Florentina Cernat, editor: Oana Tilica; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)