Drought turns peasants who live only from agriculture into starving. They complain that the harvests are catastrophic and that they don’t even have anything to feed their animals. Most either sell their cattle for nothing or take out loans to buy fodder from Ukraine.
The peasants say that only the coccinians are left PHOTO Cosmin Zamfirache
The effects of this summer’s drought are devastating, especially for the peasants who live exclusively from agriculture. The most affected are the villages in the south and east of Romania. Very high temperatures and lack of water dried up fields and crops. The peasants found themselves in a situation where they effectively have nothing to feed their animals and their own families. Even the fish ponds have dried up, and if next summer is the same as this one, people say they will actually leave en masse, wherever they can see, leaving the villages deserted. “Because we won’t actually have anything to eat. Neither us nor the animals”confesses a villager from the Drislea area, heavily affected by the drought.
Sunburnt fields, desperate peasants
In Botoșani county, considered especially during the communist period “Bărăganul Moldovei”, the situation is effectively desperate. According to official statistics, Botoșaniul is the most affected county in Romania, due to the lack of water. There are over 114 localities affected by the lack of water and the entire county is effectively scorched by the sun. Two rivers that spring from the territory of Botoșani County have dried up. In Gorbănești commune, for example, the communal pond has completely dried up. The effects are devastating for the villagers. And this in the conditions where the majority of the rural population in Botoșani county, and in Moldova in general, lives from agriculture and animal husbandry. The peasants from Botoșani say that they have effectively run out of food, both for themselves and for their animals.
Maize in Botoșani county PHOTO Cosmin Zamfirache
“Nothing was done. The corn is also dry inside, as if it were iron. Potatoes nothing. We have nothing to eat”says a villager from Socrujeni resignedly. Another family, from Drislea, is desperately looking for cobs. Nea Vasile throws dry “dolls” into the lehamites. His wife almost bursts into tears. “It’s a disaster. We have nothing to do with cows and chickens,” she confesses. Another villager, this time from Bătrânești, returns with a cart full of dry corn stalks. “ Only dry raisins (no corn stalks), that’s all. Neither the beans nor the potatoes were done. Nothing, dad burned it. I’m walking as slowly as possible, to cool down my trouble, because I feel like jumping headfirst into the first well”, says the villager.
“We buy from Ukrainians, because they are cheaper”
Those who have not managed to get anything from the fields have two solutions, the villagers say, either sell all the animals and go abroad, or borrow money and buy fodder and vegetables to survive. Mihai is 24 years old and lives in Gorbănești commune. He confesses that the thought of leaving beats him. “I know that in construction, that I have worked a little more. We have calves, what should we do with them, because the fodder is expensive. Nothing came out in the field. I swear if we had a harvest, we had more to grow. I think they have his woman and I’m leaving. I promised my father that I would wait until next summer. If that’s the case, I’m going to Germany.”says the villager. There are many like Mihai in the villages of northern Romania. They end up, in desperation, selling their cattle for nothing and leaving wherever they can see.
What’s left of the corn and sunflower PHOTO Cosmin Zamfirache
“I give the cow for 1500 lei, the calf for 500 lei. And that’s it. They sell what they can, get money for travel and to live until the German or Englishman gives them the leaf, and leave without looking back. What should he do, starve to death? Many would have stayed at home if something happened to them in the field, because they were attached to their parents, theirs”says another villager from Bătrâneşti. Others, more attached to the house and perhaps with a few more animals, borrow to buy fodder and food. Villagers confess that they end up buying Ukrainian grain because it is cheaper. “My sister bought 6,000 lei of grain.
Signs of despair
They buy from Ukrainians. Everyone buys. But if next year it’s the same, we’re destroyed, no question”says another villager. Signs of despair also appeared on the roadsides, especially in the Drislea area. People are desperately asking for water, writing help messages on cardboards mounted on the side of the national road. “Soon, I predict, that next summer at the latest, there will be a circus of hunger. Either everyone will go outside, or there will be an uprising like in 1907. Without this year’s harvest, the people have exhausted all resources. If there is still a drought next year, what else will he buy with?”says a peasant from Drislea. “Including a German, he went bankrupt. He has a lot of land around here. I sowed rapeseed and nothing came of it. Leave”, adds another villager from Bătrâneşti.
