Moldovan government to contract emergency loan to support farmers

Chisinau, 10 August /MOLDPRES/- The Moldovan government will contract an emergency loan from the World Bank to Moldovan farmers.

After a today’s meeting with Prime Minister and Speaker, President Igor Dodon said that to compensate for losses incurred by farmers this year, the cbinet of ministers will contract a special loan from the World Bank. "We need an emergency loan from the World Bank to help farmers. Colleagues from the government will have consultations with representatives of this bank in the coming days. We must do everything possible to help farmers, otherwise they will not survive by late 2020", he said.

Moldovan farmers are going through an unprecedented crisis. "We have an unusual drought, which has affected both the crops in the first group and those in the second. The government provided one thousand lei per hectare of support for the first group crops – there are 200 thousand hectares of first group crops affected. 500 thousand hectares of second group crops are endangered, for which we will provide compensation. At this moment, the assessment is made to see the damage ", he said.

According to official estimates, of the almost 415,000 hectares sown in autumn with cereals in the first group, about 200,000 hectares were affected by drought in more than 60%. 200 million lei were previously earmarked for the area, 100 million lei from the Agriculture Subsidy Fund and 100 million from the Government Intervention Fund, to support farmers.