RIGA, June 26 (Xinhua) -- The prolonged period of exceptionally hot and dry weather that has been ruining crops and pastures in most of Latvia this summer was declared a natural disaster of national scale Tuesday, governmental representatives informed.
The crisis management council, which met under Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis' leadership on Tuesday, rejected several local authorities' request to declare a state of emergency in the Baltic country's agricultural sector over the drought and decided to declare a natural disaster instead.
The council concluded that there is no need to declare the state of emergency as the Agriculture Ministry has not asked to compensate the drought-stricken farmers' losses with budget money and the farmers can be supported by postponing the payments they have to make for projects that are co-funded by the European Union (EU).
The crisis management council's decision to declare the drought a natural disaster will make it easier for the farmers to explain the delays of their payments, the Agriculture Ministry said.
The authorities supervising the absorption of government and EU support will take into consideration the situation and not penalize the farmers for the delayed payments, the ministry added.
The Agriculture Ministry had received a total of 32 applications from local authorities and nongovernmental organizations from all over Latvia calling for a state of emergency in the agricultural sector. Some of the local authorities only asked to ease business regulations for the affected farmers, while others called for compensations.
However, the scale of the drought damage will only be estimated in the fall.
Farmers in Latvia have been suffering massive losses this year as the dry spell, which started in early May, has destroyed various grain crops, as well as the vegetable and fruit harvest. The rain that has fallen in recent days has not brought much relief either, farmers' organizations said.
