Record Drought Grips Germany's Breadbasket
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Business
Withered sunflowers, scorched wheat fields, stunted cornstalks -- the farmlands of northern Germany have borne the brunt of this year's extreme heat and record-low rainfall, triggering an epochal drought.
AFP
Dry crops, Representative image, Source: PxHere
As the blazing sun beats down, combine harvesters working the normally fertile breadbasket of Saxony-Anhalt in former communist East Germany kick up giant clouds of dust as they roll over the cracked earth.
A natural disaster is declared by German authorities during a drought when at least 30 percent of the average annual harvest is destroyed.
Given the massive losses feared by the sector this year, the German Farmers' Association (DBV) has called crisis talks on Tuesday to discuss urgent state aid.
While southern Germany has seen largely normal rainfall this year, the north has been in the grip of an unrelenting high-pressure system creating weather conditions more familiar in southern France or Italy.
"We expect billions in losses," DBV president Joachim Rukwied told German media last week.
The grain crop alone has shrunk by up to eight million tonnes or around 18 percent this year, stripping 1.4 billion euros from revenues so far.
Read full article: TheLocal.de
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