Kaineder urges government to speed up drought aid

Upper Austria Greens leader and state councillor Stefan Kaineder has called for rapid drought aid for affected farms, ORF reported. Farmers are growing increasingly impatient as dry conditions continue, while the federal government has yet to clarify how its promised assistance will work.

Milk cattle farms are under particular pressure because the drought has left many without enough feed. “Farmers are facing a truly devastating situation,” Kaineder said in an interview with the ORF programme ZiB2. While the government continues to discuss possible measures, affected families are already considering which animals they may have to sell.

Kaineder said the federal government, including Agriculture Minister Norbert Totschnig of the Austrian People’s Party, must find a solution with its coalition partners. He did not say whether the aid should involve additional funding or a redistribution of money within the existing budget.

He also criticised Austria’s existing drought insurance, saying it offered limited benefits to some grassland farmers. In some cases, he said, farmers did not even recover the amount they had paid in premiums.

The financing of any additional aid remains unresolved. Austria is under particular scrutiny from the European Union because of its high deficit and is also implementing a spending-cutting programme. Kaineder did not provide a specific answer on where extra money for agriculture should come from, saying that was the government’s responsibility.

He warned that the current crisis could have long-term consequences. If farmers were forced to sell livestock or close their businesses because of the drought, he said, the question of who would produce domestic food would arise next year. “Help must come quickly,” Kaineder said.

The interview also covered the planned Google data centre in Kronstorf, a municipality in Upper Austria. Kaineder said too little information about the project had been made public, particularly regarding its electricity needs, power supply and the use of waste heat.