The Ministry of Agriculture has received 176 applications from farmers for storm damage as of Thursday, August 15. The total area affected by the storm is about 10,000 hectares, Minister of Agriculture Armands Krauze (Greens and Farmers Union) said.

Three-quarters of the total area reported to have been affected by the storm was insured, the minister said.

"The uninsured area is only 2.7 thousand hectares. We are still updating the latest information, which was submitted on August 14 and 15, but in this case, it looks like most of it is insured," Krauze said.

He said that gardeners, fruit and vegetable growers, as well as potato growers were seriously affected by the storm. Potato and other vegetable areas have been under water for a long time and vegetables are badly damaged. Cereals, however, are mostly salvageable.

Farmers were given just over two weeks to report storm damage. The information gathered will be submitted to the authorities.

He reiterated that the idea of a national risk fund should be finalized this year. "Those farms that do not take out insurance will have to make compulsory contributions to the risk fund and, consequently, if these farms suffer large losses, they will be able to receive support from the risk fund," said Mr Krauze. "There will be two options - either insurance or the risk fund."

Source - https://eng.lsm.lv