The farmers of the populated places of Kuklish, Svidovica and Gradsko Baldovci in Strumica municipality get Saturday new irrigation system, a government’s funded project amounting to Denar 52 million which will facilitate the work and will increase yields of vegetable crops.

The irrigation system was officially opened by Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, who said that the government will continue with investments in Macedonian agriculture in the future, due to which we have been called agricultural government by political opponents.

We are proud that agriculture is just one of our top priorities. Unlike some other countries, Macedonia has no outlet to the sea; there are no deposits of oil, and no gas sources. Our wealth are the Macedonian fields and mountains and Macedonian agricultural products. That is why we are committed to systematically make long-term investments in the development and advancement of our agriculture, Gruevski said.

He noted that besides farm subsidies, aid for the purchase of agricultural machinery and certified seeds, investments in irrigation of agricultural areas will be one of the top priorities of the government in the coming period.

As a government we are determined to invest €200 million in the forth-coming years for the rehabilitation, reconstruction and construction of irrigation systems. This project will cover about 85,000 hectares of agricultural land whereat irrigation systems, as well as drainage will be installed, he said.

Agriculture Minister Mihail Cvetkov underlined that in order to improve and modernize the agriculture the Government and Agriculture Ministry are working on establishing a stable structure for centralized water management for irrigation. In that context, new company "Vodovod" AD was established, which will start its operations in early October.

I urge all as a Government, ministry, agricultural holdings and purchasing and distribution centres to use all advantages offered by this Government to raise agricultural production and to keep being present on the European and world markets for agricultural products, Cvetkov said.

Irrigation system called "Markova Reka" is a modern system with an underground network of pipelines and facilities that provides irrigation water for agricultural land in the vicinity of villages of Kuklish, Svidovica and Gradsko Baldovci.