Crop failure due to drought: Brandenburg helps farmers with millions

Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Farmers Lose Harvests in Germany because of the heat. Therefore, they urgently want policy support. While Agriculture Minister Klöckner does not want to promise anything, Brandenburg meets farmers on several occasions.

Brandenburg wants to help farmers affected by drought. Then the Potsdam State Cabinet accepted. It is therefore estimated that five million euros will be made available at first.

"For some companies, the situation comes to exist and we can not and will not allow this," said SPD Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke. Therefore, the country wants to "help farms affected by drought."

The five million euros are therefore part of the money intended for the resolution of the damage caused by the bad weather of 2017, but not entirely necessary was. Finance Minister Christian Görke also said that farmers are willing to accept tax issues, such as deferred payments. Bavaria also wants to help: Although the country is not so severely affected by the drought, it wants to offset farmers' extra costs by buying fodder.

Dispute over aid to farmers

view. The Federal Minister of Agriculture, Julia Klöckner, said on the occasion of a federal and state meeting on the consequences of the drought, that the federal government can decide up to 39, at the end of the month of August. For federal aid is also a prerequisite that the losses accounted for at least 30 percent of the average income of the last three years. This is only while the state of emergency can be explained. Klöckner said that the Confederation can intervene only in disasters of "national scope".

Klöckner pointed out that the effects vary considerably by region. Many winegrowers waited for about a century of wine. In addition, there is still no data from some countries. Farmers, however, refer to mbadive harvests, for example, cereals and the demand for at least one billion euros from the state.

Klöckner wants to present the results of the federal-state meeting on helping farmers hit by drought. Since April, no rush of ministers of the countries has required prompt aid payments. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Agriculture Minister Till Backhaus stressed that there had been no rainfall in his country since April. "We do not have time to wait until the end of August," he also called for swift decisions. Mr. Backhaus expressed the hope that the federal and state governments would share the costs. The Minister of Agriculture of Saxony, Thomas Schmidt, said: "Since the effects are so dramatic, we are convinced that the federal government must be on our side."

More information on the subject

"Farmers do not leave alone", asked the Minister of Agriculture of Baden-Württemberg, Peter Hauk. The crop losses are now there, so the decisions must now be made, he warned in the SWR.

reluctance commented NRW Minister of Agriculture Ursula Heinen-Esser. She told the "Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger" that state aid was justified "only in extreme exceptional situations", which could not be discussed in their country's cereal harvest.

Due to global warming, heat waves and other extreme weather events are expected in the coming years. Thus, livestock would be reduced in the production of industrial meat, demanded the BUND. Like the WWF, the badociation also called for an immediate program for consistent climate protection.

Source: n-tv.de