The farmers of the province of Famagusta are in despair as they see their crops being baked by the sun and being completely destroyed due to the heat.
According to the farmers, open cultivation and fruit and vegetable crops have been damaged, with damages estimated to exceed 70%. Direct impact, the reduction of production and the increase of prices in the market.
Note that when potatoes and onions are uprooted and harvested, the products are almost cooked.
In his statements, the President of the Pancypriot Organization of Potato Growers, Andreas Karyos, said that "the damage to onions is 70-80%, melons are 100%, watermelons are less, it depends on how easily you affect the product, the flowering of open crops or of greenhouses is too high, a vacuum will be created and we will say why are there no products, the flowering is the one that will give the products, a vacuum will be created until the weather conditions change to bloom and produce another generation of production"
The damage declaration has only been opened on dry onion plantations in the communities of Xylofagos and Ormidia with farmers expressing disappointment.
Mr. Karyos added that "this morning it was announced that only a declaration of damage should be made for onions, I want to convey my disappointment, the declaration of damage must be made for all agricultural products and to show the magnitude of the problem that exists in all argicultural products".
Tens of thousands of euros in damages have been suffered by the farmers who are once again asking for the Government's support.
Mr. Karios said that "the message we want to give and our consumers will see it on the shelf, is that the damage is great and prices will go higher, we will have increases in agricultural products"
The Water Department's decision to cut off water for farmers adds to the problems they are already facing.
The President of the Pancypriot Organization of Potato Producers said that "the Ministry of Agriculture needs to look at it again, it needs to strengthen a little more the quantities of the 60% reduction that we have been cut from 22 to be able to produce products for the world in Cyprus".
Farmers in the region highlight the urgent need for strategic solutions.
