CHISINAU (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th July, 2020) Agriculturalists from the Moldovan regions of Causeni and Stefan Voda have staged a protest on the country's highways over the lack of government support amid a harvest failure caused by drought and hail, a Sputnik correspondent reports on Monday.
Many farmers have lost this year's crops due to the inclement weather. Disgruntled with the government's failure to so far provide assistance, many took to the country's highways in their farm machinery to stage a demonstration in the hope of receiving compensation.
Opposition leader Andrei Nastase has urged the country's parliament to call an emergency session to discuss the ongoing crisis.
"The Dignity and Truth Platform Party has asked the parliament speaker to convene an urgent session to consider bills on tax breaks for agricultural workers ... as well as the allocation from the state budget of at least 200 million lei ($11.9 million) as compensation to farmers who have lost their crops," Nastase said at a press briefing.
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Ion Chicu said that the government was intending to provide assistance to farmers who have lost their crops.
State meteorologists in Moldova have said that this past winter was abnormally warm with insufficient precipitation, as many areas received between 40 and 70 percent of the expected rainfall. A drought in spring was followed by heavy rains and hail in May, which washed away many crops.
