Farmers in Larnaca and Famagusta are struggling to protect their crops from the frost of the past few days, watering them overnight, in a last-ditch effort to save potatoes, vegetables, melons, bananas and fruit trees, agricultural organisations said on Monday. They said that many crops have already been ruined.
On Monday morning, teams from the agriculture ministry were visiting cultivations to conduct and initial evaluation of the damage.
In a statement on Monday, the agriculture ministry said the affected farmers would be given all possible support and that compensation would be expedited.
It added that the water development department had managed to supply farmers with additional water to protect their crops.
As the cold spell is expected to continue for a few more days, the situation will be monitored and farmers are asked to contact the district agricultural offices to quickly examine their applications for compensation.
Potato-growers’ coordinating organisation representative Andreas Karyos said efforts were being made around the clock since Friday to save what can be saved until temperatures go up again mid-week.
“The growers are monitoring the temperature and once it drops to 1C or 0C they start watering the crops until daybreak,” Karyos said.
He added that not all crops can be watered overnight and farmers are choosing to save the largest ones.
However, the water often freezes, causing further damage, Karyos said.
He added that temperatures in many areas of Cyprus have been dropping below zero, ruining crops.
He thanked Agriculture Minister Maria Panayiotou and the Water Development Department (WDD) for keeping the water supply open overnight and called on the WDD to open the valves an hour earlier to save more crops.
Meanwhile, Panayiotou is in contact with the electricity authority (EAC) to make sure there are no power cuts, so that the farmers can continue protecting their crops and animals unhindered.
Panagrotikos leader Tasos Yiapanis told the Cyprus News Agency that extensive damage has been held off due to the overnight watering, however farmers are still on alert.
Yiapanis said this was an emergency and called on the WDD to allow more water for saving crops.
Union of Cyprus Farmers (EKA) leader Panikos Hambas said the frost over the past few days had affected all crops across Cyprus and that the extent of the damage would become evident over the next few days.
Hambas said farmers were braving freezing temperatures to save their crops overnight and that some were using extra plastic sheeting to cover certain plantations, such as melons.