Desperate farmers in southern Portugal have resorted to cutting leaves off trees to try to save cattle from starvation as the lack of rain has led to a shortage of pastures.

"A grant will be given for each head of cattle affected by the drought, we are still negotiating the value but it will total 10 million euros at the least," he said Saturday during a visit to farms near the central village of Alvorninha, daily newspaper Correio da Manha reported.

Farmers' associations have threatened to bring their cattle to graze on grass in Lisbon parks unless the government did more to help them.

Earlier this month Agriculture Minister Carlos Costa Neves said the government would pay farmers their regular state subsidies for February and March ahead of schedule, on January 27, to help them buy feed for their cattle.

There has been no rain in Portugal's southernmost Algarve province since November, the longest dry spell since 1983.

The dry weather has delighted tourists but it has caused water levels at dams and wells across southern Portugal to fall below normal levels, forcing authorities to bring drinking water to several remote villages by truck.

The national meteorological office said water moisture levels in the soil were below average in most of the country, especially in the southern provinces of Alentejo and Algarve where they hovered around 40 percent of normal levels.

Crops and pasture in those two provinces would likely suffer from the lack of water, it warned earlier this month.

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