Ministry of Agriculture announces better crops for farmers in 2014

Romania has registered record rapeseed yield in 2014 which exceeds 1 billion tons, the largest harvest since 1970, according to the preliminary data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Over the past three years both the rapeseed production and the cultivated area have steadily increased. While in 2012 the rapeseed crop totaled 157,000 tons given a cultivated area of about 105,000 hectares, last year production grew to 647,000 tons as acreage was expanded to nearly 285,000 hectares.

“It is a very good year for rapeseed, as we have the best yield since 1970. To be more precise, this year we harvested 1,089 million tons, almost double compared to last year”, said Daniel Constantin, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, during a visit to the Mehedinti County.

Higher yields have been reported for wheat, rye, barley, and oats, as well, according to the data released by the ministry and confirmed by Constantin: “Wheat harvest in 2014 was better than that of 2013, too, coming to more than 7.37 million tons. June rains generated some issues with respect to wheat crops, but had beneficial effects on crops of corn and sunflower”, added the minister.

In 2013, wheat harvest totaled 7.34 million tons and the average yield per hectare was 3.55 tons, whereas this year’s production led to an average yield of 3.65 tons/hectare.

Barley production improved from 1.51 million tons last year to 1.74 million tons in 2014 with positive impact in terms of average yield per hectare – 3.38 tons/hectare in 2014 over 3.27 tons/hectare in 2013. Besides, the cultivated area was expanded so as in 2014 there were some 516,400 hectares sowed with barley as compared with 461,000 hectares the previous year.

Also, farmers harvested more than 379,000 tons of oats, the highest production since 1970, too, the average yield per hectare being 1.95 tons this year. As for sunflower crop, the cultivated area is similar to that of 2013, about 1 million hectares. Last year was the best one in the last three decades in terms of production which exceeded 2 million tons, shows the ministry on its website.