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Europe has been afflicted for several weeks by extreme heat, with temperatures exceeding forty degrees in several countries causing problems for forest fires, for the daily life of citizens but also in international transport and obviously in fields with crops in strong suffering. As SME points out, some European countries that have already suffered from little rainfall in winter and spring, such as Spain, southern France, Germany, eastern parts of Hungary or western and southern Ukraine, report harvests much leaner than usual in corn, wheat, canola, soybeans, as well as little forage to feed the livestock.
A phenomenon that among experts begins to be defined with the term “heatflation“: a rise in food prices caused by record heat and reduced harvests.
In Slovakia apples, peaches and plums are not big enough to go on the market, so the yield will be lower than usual due to the drought, according to the Slovak Chamber of Agriculture and Food. Vegetable growers suffer extremely from a lack of moisture in the soil, and winemakers say that this year’s harvest will be about ten percent lower.
Dry, crumbly soil and high temperatures will cause a significant decrease in corn yields: Farmers in Zvolen, a city in central Slovakia, expect production to drop by 50 to 60%, and sugar beet will also see a reduction harvesting while farmers risk not being able to feed their animals, given the collapse of hay production. New sowings are also at risk due to the extremely dry state of the soil. There is also another factor worrying farmers: the problems of supplying components and the generalized increase in costs is also driving up the prices of agricultural machinery. Against a growing sector, with higher global sales of ten or fifteen percentage points, a 15% increase in tractors and other agricultural machinery is expected by the autumn.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture informs that they have been working for some time on adaptation to climate change, with measures to prevent drought and tackle the irregular distribution of water in the country. The current extreme conditions, in particular due to the lack of rainfall – or on the contrary due to the water bombs which flood the land in a few minutes – are a very clear sign of the climate change underway, they tell the ministry: in the twenty years 2001-2020 there there have been demonstrably more frequent droughts caused by excessive water evaporation.
The ministry says it is actively engaged in a soil conservation programme, proposing solutions to combat drought and improve water retention in the country. An issue also addressed last October at the level of EU ministers to create a joint legislative framework for soil protection in the European Union. Several prevention activities will be covered financially by the Climate Fund for Soil, which is already in the legislative stage and will be the subject of interdepartmental comments in August. In September, the Council of Ministers will discuss a document dealing with hydromelorisation and the economy of water, which presents measures for adaptation to climate change and an improvement in soil water retention and the use of rainwater , with positive effects also on the restoration of biodiversity. Finally, the ministry in collaboration with the Slovak Land Fund (SPF) will involve experts in the field of water and environmental management to try to make better use of the hitherto unused areas under SPF management (the so-called white areas), so as to allow to use these territories to create ecosystem services (anti-erosion and water retention measures) and develop landscape care.
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The question of irrigation in Slovakia, a long-standing issue that has been discussed for years without really finding a solution, is among the priorities of the Ministry of Agriculture, which intends to tackle a strategy to revitalize the irrigation network in the country, favoring the maintenance in the long term of the production of cereals but also the development of the production of vegetables in the area of Žitný ostrov (Island of Rye), the territory that expands in south-western Slovakia between the course of the Danube and the Maly Dunaj river (the Little Danube). An area known as the largest freshwater reservoir in Slovakia and possibly Central Europe.
Agriculture Minister Samuel Vlčan confirmed his interest in a meeting with representatives of farmers and municipalities from the Komárno region in recent weeks. The minister is convinced that fruit and vegetable cultivation also has a future in Žitný ostrov, a potential that every effort must be made to network, both with the EU’s common agricultural policy and with a national intervention strategy. The Ministry wants to readapt the former drainage channels into water retention channels for the land, and is asking for the intervention of entrepreneurs to revitalize the irrigation system together with the state-owned company Hydromeliorácie, which, the minister admits, has not has produced the renewal of not even one hectare of irrigation.
(The editorial staff)
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