ROMANIAN agriculture: sometimes, plowing in autumn is not the best technology for south Romania

Day of the corn kicked off in Orezu, at 10:30am, on September 16. The event was organized by Nicolae Sitaru, LAPAR president. Valeriu Tabara, minister of Agriculture, was one of the main speakers at the opening. He highlighted the specific issues that corn crops are facing and how new technologies can be adapted to Romania’s climate.

“I was surprised to find out that this year the cultivated area decreased to less than 3 million hectares. Average production is less than 5 tones/ hectare and this means that we won’t be internationally competitive”, said the minister.

According to him, Romania has a capacity to produce 20-30 million tones of corn. For this to happen we’ll have to continue investing in irrigation systems, new technologies to develop genetic material, and in tilling technologies.
In need for new technologies

“Sometimes plowing is not the right operation for Baragan land. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t use the plow anymore, but we should use it wisely. People that went lately to US farming exhibitions know what I’m taking about and you know how often you have seen this equipment there. Farmers in Baragan have an issue with retaining the water into the soil and plowing doesn’t help too much in solving this problem”, said Valeriu Tabara.

Minister of Agriculture overemphasized also on issues regarding transportation and storage infrastructure. He reaffirmed the ministry’s commitment to continue to invest in garrets and other storage facilities: “We still need a 200,000 tones storage capacity garret, in southern area, on Danube”. Mr. Tabara also mentioned cereals stock exchange and advised farmers to take advantage of the auspicious moment on international markets.

“Why is Braila Stock Exchange at a dead end? The ministry cannot create it; we are only able to support its establishment. Braila Stock Exchange has to be established soon. If we enter the market now, we can all profit from it”, he added.