Romania sets drought compensation at 333 lei per hectare for maize and sunflower

Romania's government has set compensation for maize and sunflower crops hit by the 2025 drought at 333 lei per hectare, roughly 63 euros, a level growers say falls far short of their production costs. The measure was approved at the cabinet meeting of Friday, 18 September, Adevarul reported.

According to Agriculture Ministry figures cited by Adevarul, the drought damaged 273,276 hectares of maize and 280,685 hectares of sunflower — more than half a million hectares in total — with further crops affected but excluded from compensation altogether.

The package is worth 155.36 million lei, funded in equal parts by the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (77.68 million lei) and the Romanian state budget (77.68 million lei). Payments will be handled by APIA, the national agricultural payments agency, and must fall within the European payment deadline for the measure, 31 December 2026. The government expects the money to reach farmers' accounts before the end of the year.

A sliding scale tied to damage reports

The scheme covers farmers whose 2025 maize and/or sunflower crops were damaged by between 30% and 100%. The reference amount of 333 lei per hectare is paid in full only where damage exceeds 90%; below that the sum is reduced in proportion to the loss recorded in the official damage assessment report. Where the report gives a range rather than an exact percentage, the arithmetic mean of that range applies.

• 30% damage, the minimum threshold for any payment: about 100 lei per hectare
• 40%: 133 lei per hectare
• 50%: 167 lei per hectare
• 60%: 200 lei per hectare
• 70%: 233 lei per hectare
• 80%: 266 lei per hectare
• 90%: 300 lei per hectare
• above 90% and up to 100%: 333 lei per hectare

To qualify, a farmer must hold a damage assessment report — documents drawn up in the summer and autumn of 2025 — and must have filed a 2025 payment claim with APIA. The damaged area stated in the report cannot exceed the area of the same crop established by APIA. Individual farmers, authorised sole traders, commercial companies, cooperatives and producer organisations are all eligible.

Aid covers a fraction of the estimated loss

A farm with 100 hectares written off entirely would receive 33,300 lei at the maximum rate, about 6,344 euros at the exchange rate of 5.2487 lei to the euro used in drafting the scheme.

Total Romanian maize output for 2025 is estimated at 8.96 million tonnes. The scheme documentation puts the estimated income loss at 863.744 million lei for maize and 997.762 million lei for sunflower, and places per-hectare income losses in a range of 210 to 890 euros depending on the severity of the damage. Against that, the maximum payment of roughly 63 euros per hectare covers only a small share of the estimated economic loss.

The figure has moved repeatedly. Sums of up to 100 euros per hectare were discussed publicly, and a draft of the act set a ceiling of 523 lei per hectare, the equivalent of about 100 euros. In early September 2026 farmers were told the ceiling would be just 100 lei per hectare, before the version that reached the cabinet settled at 333 lei. Adevarul, which compared the Romanian scheme with French support, reported that a French maize grower in the same situation would receive several times more.

Costs, rents and planting decisions

Teiu Paunescu, a farmer in Olt county in the south of the country who had roughly 500 hectares of maize and sunflower destroyed, told Adevarul the payment was a mockery. Direct costs run between 4,000 and 5,000 lei per hectare, he said, against a reimbursement of 300 lei per hectare.

The support does not cover even the rent paid to landowners, he added: farmers pay 800 while receiving 330. He also noted that most growers operate on credit and buy inputs on deferred payment terms, with few holding financial reserves.

Fearing another dry year, Paunescu halved his maize and sunflower area for 2026 to 250-300 hectares and cut fertiliser applications by 50%. The season turned out wet and favourable, and he harvested 6 to 7 tonnes of maize per hectare against a record of 12 tonnes on that land under full technology. He intends to keep the reduced area next year. He has sown 80% of his planned rapeseed and says the crop will be lost within a month if rain does not come, as the area is not irrigated.