Drought affects 40% of Portugal. The IPMA reports that “there has been no rain in the past two months.”

Agriculture and Food Minister Maria do Seu Antunes said on Monday that she had signed an order recognizing the dry situation in 40% of the country’s territory, in the south of the country.

The order was signed on Friday after the guardianship received data from the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) showing “there has been no rain in the past two months” and “three waves of rain,” the official said. heat in April”, and “average and maximum temperatures were significantly above the norm”.

“This allows us, together with the European Commission, to say that we are in a drought situation,” said Maria do Seu Antunes in Fundão, where she attended the auction of the first 2023 Fundão cherries and the presentation of the campaign to promote the fruit.

According to the supervising minister, the technical data made it possible to sign an order to declare a dry state, which allows “activating a set of measures to support farmers.”

Maria do Seu Antunes specified that this assistance could be obtained from a single Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) strategic plan request as “another set of measures” for which permission is requested from Brussels, one of which could be occupied by fallow land. used for grazing livestock.

The minister acknowledged that “the situation is expected to worsen” and the guardianship will be “closely monitored”.

Maria do Seu Antunes added that the Inter-Ministerial Commission on Drought will meet “whenever justified” to take “necessary measures” if necessary to expand the area covered by the drought.

Of the 65 hydro-agricultural reservoirs with approved contingency plans, 60 have been provided with an irrigation campaign due to rains in December and January, the official said.

“We have five projects with serious limitations, which we already had last year, but there is a set of investments that are being made structurally so that we can improve these projects,” the minister stressed.

Maria do Seu Antunes stressed that there are “some administrative hurdles” to comply with the specific notice for the establishment of the ponds, but she stressed that this is work done in conjunction with the Ministry of the Environment to “correct” the situation and allow for a network of ponds that allow you to have “a large capacity of water that falls less frequently, but when it falls, it falls in large quantities.”