“Visiting farms and discussing the situation with local government representatives, we must conclude that this year will be very difficult in some regions. Due to prolonged rains, the land is saturated or completely under water, crops are rotting, diseases are spreading, and in some places, field care is impossible. This is not just a problem in Latgale or Vidzeme – crops are also standing in water in Sēlija, Kurzeme, and Zemgale.
“The harvest season has begun, but tractors are sinking into the fields, making both threshing and mowing difficult. The situation on farms has already become critical,” the Minister of Agriculture said.
The prolonged rain has also affected the quality of roads – regional roads that heavy machinery must travel on are washed out and unsafe. Even if it is possible to access the fields, farmers must carefully consider how to get to them, the Ministry of Agriculture said.
“Declaring a state of emergency will improve the situation of farms and help overcome this crisis more easily,” Krauze said, and also called on lenders and other financial institutions to take a lenient attitude to hard-pressed farmers.
Though a ‘state of emergency’ sounds dramatic, it is principally a technical legal term that allows the government greater freedom when it comes to allocating financial and other resources rather than an indicator of imminent peril to life.
There is also a political element to the Minister’s call for a state of emergency: the party he represents draws much of its support from farmers and rural communities. Similarly, the opposition party “United List” (AS) said in a statement to the media that although the Ministry of Agriculture plans to request financial assistance from Brussels, it will take several more months before this support reaches farmers.
“Unfortunately, as previous experience shows, its amount will be only a small part of the actual losses. Therefore, support in the form of compensation from the state budget is currently crucial,” said AS, saying that the government must immediately find financial support to support farms affected by the prolonged rains.