The first tranche of the financial support for sowing wheat, of 120 lei per ha, was paid. Last autumn, there were sowed 325,000 ha, which is by 50,000 ha more than a year before. The data were made public in a working meeting centering on the situation in agriculture on January 4, Info-Prim Neo reports. Minister of Agriculture Vasile Bumacov said that the Government directed 12 million lei for supporting the animal-breeding sector. This money was distributed among cattle breeders, by 499 lei per animal. The assistance received from Poland, France, and Italy was distributed to breeding stock farms. The minister said that the second tranche of the assistance, of 22 million lei, for sowing winter wheat will be paid at the start of 2013, depending on the degree to which the districts were affected. 90 million lei will be distributed after the sowing of corn. Prime Minister Vlad Filat requested the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry to work out and present a strategy that will concern the irrigation of farmland.