CHISINAU (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th July, 2020) The Moldovan government will allocate about $18 million to support farmers who lost crops due to drought and hailstorms that hit the country this year, Prime Minister Ion Chicu said Tuesday.
On Monday, agriculture industry workers from the Moldovan regions of Causeni and Stefan Voda staged a protest on the country's highways over the lack of government support amid a harvest failure. Many farmers have lost this year's crops due to the inclement weather.
"At this stage, the government will allocate 300 million lei [$18 million] to partially compensate for the damage caused by the drought and hail. And this is in the midst of the economic crisis," Chicu said at a briefing.
The prime minister called on farmers to refrain from blocking national highways, noting that the solution to the problem should be found through a dialogue.
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 a large part of the crops.
