Message from Nicu VASILE, President of LAPAR

The year 2025 has been one of the most difficult for Romanian farmers in recent decades. While the Ministry of Agriculture proudly announced record cereal and rapeseed yields – reaching 19.3 million tonnes – the reality on the ground paints a different picture: corn and sunflower crops in the south of the country have been devastated by drought, with losses of up to 80–90%.

For many farmers, this is the fifth consecutive year of heavy losses caused by extreme weather. Compensation promised by the government is insufficient, covering not even the cost of setting up crops. Moreover, 3% of national farm subsidies were redirected to the budget for drought compensation, while statistics show that each year more than 7.2 million hectares of farmland are exposed to drought.

Romania has 9.7 million hectares of arable land, but only 1.6 million hectares are prepared for irrigation, and in practice just 500,000 hectares are irrigated annually. “Much too little,” underlined LAPAR’s president, noting that the system built before the 1980s was designed to serve multiple purposes: flood protection, fish farming and hydropower.

The crisis is not only climatic, but also economic. The June 2025 Financial Stability Report shows that agricultural debts rose by 27% in a single year, and the number of undercapitalised companies continues to grow. In 2024, 123 agricultural companies filed for insolvency, almost half ending in bankruptcy. In 2025, nearly 100 more companies have already gone insolvent in the first nine months.

“You cannot survive year after year when inputs become two or three times more expensive, while the selling price of production stagnates or even decreases, as happened this year with wheat.”
— Nicu VASILE, Chairman of LAPAR

LAPAR calls for urgent measures: fair markets, subsidies aligned with European standards, investment in irrigation and agricultural research adapted to new climatic realities. Without them, Romania’s agriculture risks falling further below its true potential, while farmers and consumers alike bear the cost.

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