DK urges govt help to ailing farmers

The opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) has called on the government to provide assistance to agricultural producers affected by the unprecedented droughts hitting the country.

Szilveszter Benedek, the head of DK’s agricultural cabinet, said that the droughts were detrimental to this year’s crops, and were jeopardising food and fodder production, affecting “hundreds of thousands of farmers”.

Benedek slammed the government for “spending on luxuries in the good economic environment during the past ten years”, while it had “failed to improve water management or develop irrigation systems”. DK expects to government to take strategic steps in those directions, he added.

Benedek insisted that the fund set up to indemnify farmers was “nearly empty”, with “just a few billion forints”, while farmers had suffered damages to the tune of HUF 1,000 billion (EUR 2.5bn). Without government assistance provided before the end of the year, farmers will not be able to finance next year’s production, he warned.

Source: MTI