According to the minister, such measures have been extended “in line with the information” that is received by officials about the drought from which most of the country has been suffering in recent weeks.

“As soon as farms are found to lack water for livestock, the measure will immediately be extended, at the limit to the whole territory" of the country, he said.

Capoulas Santos described the dairy sector as strategic for the country, saying that it was one that “the government has always cherished and will continue to cherish.”

The minister was responding to remarks by José Capela, the president of Agros, the Union of Milk Producer Cooperatives, who in opening a trade fair in Póva de Varzim expressed concern about the impact of the drought and called for the support in question to be extended to the Douro, Minho and Trás-os-Montes regions, on whose farms he said water shortages are already having an impact.

In a separate announcement at the opening session, the prime minister, António Costa highlighted the existence of a government programme that aims to bring a further 90,000 hectares of land under irrigation.

He restated the government's objective of wiping out the trade deficit in the agricultural and food processing sector by 2012.