Romania Hopes to Revamp Irrigation With EU Cash

Romania is to invest 550 million euro in rehabilitating its largely disused irrigation network, covering 750,00 hectares by 2020, with most of the money coming from the European Union.

The government has alloted some 119 million euro from the budget for irrigation, while it expects to get some 370 million euro from European funds allotted for the 2014-2020 period, the Agriculture Minister, Daniel Constantin, said.

"If we get the money, we will be able to start revamping the irrigation system, which will lead to better agricultural output," Constantin said.

Romania's irrigation system covers about 30 per cent of its territory. If it was entirely restored and modernized, the country would no longer have to import grain, specialists claim.

Before 1990, under the Communist regime, Romania had an effective nationwide irrigation system, but only about 10 per cent of it is still operating.

Almost half of Romania's 19.5 million people still live in rural areas. But agriculture has long lacked investment, while other problems include fragmentation of holdings, property-related lawsuits, obsolete technology and the flight of young people to urban areas.

The total agricultural surface in Romania is 14.7 million hectares, of which 9.3 million hectares are arable. As many as 1.3 million hectares of arable land lie unused in Romania, according to statistics.