Farmers’ Union Urges Urgent Repairs of Flood-Damaged Roads

The association “Zemnieku saeima” (Farmers’ Union) calls on responsible authorities, municipalities, and the state road company “Latvijas valsts ceļi” to start repair work immediately on several road sections damaged by heavy rainfall. The most critical situation is in Kurzeme, specifically in Talsu novads, where multiple state and municipal road sections are flooded and washed out. Some roads are closed, while others have restricted traffic.

The organization emphasizes that damaged roads threaten timely harvest and transportation, milk collection from livestock farms, as well as feed and fuel deliveries. Farmers cannot afford to wait weeks for full road restoration – crops must be harvested and feed prepared when weather conditions allow.

Juris Lazdiņš, chair of the board of “Zemnieku saeima,” points out that farmers are currently reaping the results of a year’s work, and washed-out roads can hinder agricultural machinery, fuel suppliers, and grain trucks from reaching fields, dryers, processing sites, and ports. Depending on the region, threshing of winter barley, winter rapeseed, and peas has begun, and in some areas winter wheat harvesting has started. Over the next few weeks, harvesting activities will intensify, making safe and uninterrupted traffic on local and regional roads critically important.

This is especially crucial for dairy farms, where milk collection and feed deliveries must be regular. Lazdiņš explains that if milk trucks cannot reach farms due to damaged or closed roads, the milk cannot be taken away, and farms cannot store it for several days, potentially leading to milk being discarded and causing immediate losses.

The union also urges farmers to be cautious, avoid closed and dangerous road sections, and report to municipalities and road maintainers about locations where access to fields is hindered or impossible due to damage. “Zemnieku saeima” is a farmers' organization founded in 1999, uniting 800 large and small farms across Latvia, which together manage more than 500,000 hectares of agricultural land and employ over 6,000 workers.