Crushing a lump of dry soil in her hand, Iulia Blagu illustrates the impact of one of Romania's worst droughts in years. Subjected to blazing heat and a lack of water, the farmer's cornfields have been devastated and she has been forced to take out a bank loan to pay her workers. Blagu isn't alone in a country that, according to the Environment Ministry, is losing 1,000 hectares of arable land per year due to climate change.
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00:35Corn, until recently, was the most profitable crop in Romania's southern farms.
00:42We used to produce about 14-15 tons, in a normal way.
00:48In those stupid years, we used to produce about 90 tons.
00:52Now we can talk about 0 kg.
00:54In 2020, we produced 7 kg per hectare.
00:587 kg, I don't know if you understand.
01:00It's something sad, unfortunately.
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01:20This flower is rusted and stays here, although it is relatively new, purchased,
01:26because no one in the dry areas has it anymore.
01:31And I'll explain why.
01:33Because it looks like the simplest way to get the water out of the depth.
01:40And obviously, in dry areas, this is an extremely dangerous element.
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02:07Last year, it was only there, where that black stripe is.
02:11And now I see that it has gone back.
02:13I think it's more than 100 meters from that stripe.
02:17And it always goes back.
02:19I think that until autumn, if it stays so dry, nothing will remain here.
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02:52Let's try other species.
02:55At which, some time ago, I didn't even think we would taste them in our field.
03:03And that in Dăbuleni we will eat khaki, produced here, and curmale, and kiwi, fistick.
03:14And I have demonstrated, in about 4-5 years of experiments, that this is possible.
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