The Polish government Tuesday decided to pay out 500 million zlotys (125 million euros, 160 million dollars) to help farmers suffering losses in a drought caused by baking summer temperatures.
"The aid will be given to those farmers who lose at least 30 percent" of their normal harvest, said Agriculture Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Andrzej Lepper.
Farmers are to receive the payments in installments over two years, he added.
Lepper warned last week that the drought would cut Poland's cereal harvest by 20 percent.
Poland is the third-biggest wheat producer in the European Union, which it joined in 2004, after France and Germany. Last year Poland produced some 27 million tonnes of wheat.
After several weeks of drought, with temperatures reaching 36.5 degrees Centigrade (97.7 Fahrenheit) in western Poland, rain fell in most regions of the country on Tuesday.
