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Romania needs 1 billion euros for irrigations and 2.4 billion for building Siret-Baragan Canal
Romania needs investments worth one billion euros for the setting up and upgrading of its main infrastructure for irrigations only and another 2.4 billion euros for building the Siret-Baragan Canal and bringing water to the farms, Secretary of State with the Ministry of Agriculture, Daniel Botanoiu, stated on Tuesday, at the workshop for agriculture held in the framework of the China - Central and Eastern European Economic and Trade Summit.
'There are moments, especially in the spring, when the water exists in large quantities, followed by drought intervals, when we need water for the plants and an increase in the storage capacity and also in the capacity of our farms to use this water. We are working on a new strategy to technologically upgrade our irrigation system, so that to diminish costs on water for irrigations, given that the electric power only accounts for 85 percent of those costs. What the Ministry of Agriculture and the government intend to do is to ensure supplementary water catchments', explained Botanoiu.
According to the Secretary of State, the total irrigated surface in Romania covers three million hectares, out of which the economically valid surface covers 1.5 million hectares and the professionally exploited surface only 800,000 hectares. This year there were concluded irrigation agreements for a surface of 400,000 hectares, out of which 336,000 hectares were covered with the help of irrigation water users' organisations.