"Significant crop losses" - Drought affects farmers

Created: 06/23/2022, 13:54

By: Lisa Mayerhofer

Farmers in Germany are complaining about the severe drought in Germany when harvesting the early winter barley crop.

© Nicolas Armer/dpa/archive image

Not only Italy has a major drought problem - Germany is also affected.

Farmers in various German regions are feeling the effects of the drought.

Mainz – There is a state of emergency in northern Italy due to the extreme drought.

Civil protection is already preparing for a nationwide operation should the government declare a state of emergency due to the drought.

In addition, a bitter dispute has broken out about the distribution of water in the rivers and lakes.

But farmers in various regions of Germany are also complaining about drought.

"Locally, the first combine harvesters are already on the way," said the spokesman for the farmers' and winegrowers' association Rhineland-Palatinate South based in Mainz, Andreas Köhr, the German Press Agency.

The harvest of the early winter barley crop has started in the south.

“There is already a drop in yields to be expected.

We don't know how much yet," added Köhr.

Drought in Germany: Farmers expect yield losses

Overall, spring was too dry for all crops.

There is often selective and sometimes storm-like precipitation, but hardly the classic area-wide land rain, explained the association spokesman.

"But heavy rain drains away quickly because dry soil can absorb less water."

The south of Rhineland-Palatinate is not the only region in Germany affected by drought.

The Thuringian Farmers' Association said on Wednesday that the plants had to fight a "pronounced drought" almost throughout the Free State.

A poorer harvest is also feared there.

East Germany in particular has been suffering from severe drought for years - Saxony-Anhalt was hit hardest.

Although 2021 was a rainy year, it is not yet clear whether the weather in 2022 will develop just as positively for farmers.

It doesn't look like it at the moment.

Rukwied: Further drought would result in significant harvest losses

Already in the spring, the near-surface soil layers in northern Germany and along the Rhine were drier than the long-term average because, according to the German Weather Service (DWD), it had rained relatively little.

The consequences: Above all, crops that were sown during this time suffer because they have not yet been able to develop roots, says Andreas Brömser, agricultural meteorologist at the DWD.

This applies to corn, sugar beet or soybeans.

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A look at the DWD's soil moisture maps from May shows that the soil at a depth of around 30 centimeters is still relatively wet, even in the north.

The roots of the freshly planted cultures do not go far enough into the ground.

Summer grain that was sown in March, or winter rape and winter grain that was sown last autumn would already have a sufficiently long root system to get to the water in the soil.

If it does not rain enough soon, negative effects on the harvest can be expected for the regions north of the Main, said the President of the German Farmers' Association, Joachim Rukwied, on the news channel ntv last month.

Further drought would result in significant harvest losses.

Nevertheless, the security of supply with food is secured until the first quarter of next year.