Spring frosts broke farmers: will the state save?

The Cyprus Sirtaut, who has been growing up for more than one and a half hundred hectares, has been written off this year.

« According to this year’s flowering, we had to pick a rough 300 tonnes of apples from a single area. Now it will actually be zero, » said K. Sirtautas, the head of ŽŪB Žiežmariai Garden.

Without state aid, the gardener says it is impossible to survive. It also needs much and as soon as possible.

« The nuance is with gardens that you can’t close the business and say that I will come next year. They need to be sprayed, mowed, you actually spend money, and there is no return, » Sirtaut said.

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Although apple trees were fertilized, there were attempts to guard against frost in a variety of ways – nothing helped.

The gardens were hit all over Lithuania. Gardeners estimate that at best, one fifth of the harvest will remain.

« There may be much less, 10 % can remain, and 15 % of farms may remain in Žiežmariai and Luksnėnai, because, for example, Luksnėnai received the most frost, » said Vitalija Kuliešienė, head of the Business Gardens Association « Fruit and Berries ».

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Vitalia, who has been working in horticulture for over forty years, does not remember such long frost.

« It used to be 1-2 days of which can be protected. Now that for 3 weeks with the top is frost, there is no chance of preserved, » she said.

Berry growers are also behind their heads. Lithuanian currants may not be present this summer.

« In practice, about 2 % of the harvest remains, and this may be zero in some places, because long frost was, » said Adolfas Jasinevičius, chairman of the Industrial Berry Breeders Association.

Vegetable farmers have been hit a little less, but they also remember night frost with horror. Most cold struck asparagus and potato growers

« When it comes to fresh potato growers, harvest losses can reach half the amount. The asparagus is a growing vegetable, these first shoots freeze, other after removal of others.

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The yield will be lower, later, and the quality of the vegetables will suffer.

The terrible spring frost struck gardens, berries and vegetables under the sky. However, even greenhouse growers carry losses.

« This unusual May has indirect losses because we had significantly higher heating and electricity costs to control and have the right atmosphere for our plants, » said Gintaras Martinkus, CEO of Kietaviškių abundance.

The cold spring has led to heating greenhouses, so growers estimate that the electricity bill will be at least twice compared to last year.

« At this time, the production is already cheap, and our production is much more expensive, » Martinkus said.

Farmers are asking for state aid – to declare an emergency at the state level.

« There may be a question of survival here and it is very important for the state to see that support is for those who need that support most. If we do not help those farms, they will simply eliminate that economic activity, » said Vytautas Buidyv, vice -chairman of the Chamber of Agriculture.

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That the frost was also awarded by the Government.

« Temperatures have dropped up to 9 degrees in some places, which is practically the killing cold, » said Minister of Agriculture Ignas Hofman.

« The country is proclaimed an emergency to provide financial support to farms that have affected the frost.

However, what amounts that the victims can expect – it is too early to speak. The minister says that each farm is likely to be assessed individually.

« It will be taken from the last 3 years of the last 3 years, during which the farm has not suffered similar claims, and this will calculate the average economic income, » Hofman explained.

Lazdijai and Vilkaviškis district municipalities have already announced an emergency of municipal level.