Since mid-June, hot weather has set in a significant part of Russia, in some places the temperature has broken absolute records.
Against this background, farmers fear that they may lose a significant part of the harvest.
At the same time, we are not talking about such large losses as in 2010, which went down in history as the year of anomalous drought.
As the head of the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies Dmitry Rylko noted, the heat threatens mainly cereals, which are now entering the blooming season.
For buckwheat, sunflower or sugar beet, the heat does not pose a particular threat.
The following regions are at greatest risk:
Ural.
Volga region.
Center of Russia.
South (Stavropol, Rostov, Volgograd regions).
But even in them the situation is different. For example, harvesting has already begun in the south, so the impact of drought there will be minimal .
But in the Urals, for example, there has been no rain since the end of April, so the situation there becomes tense.
In the Volga region, there is neither rain nor soil moisture reserves, and there is also a difficult situation there.
Abnormal heat was also established in Orenburg. Both spring and winter crops have been affected by the drought, so there is very little reason for optimism.
A similar situation is in Tatarstan. According to the President of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, there are no guarantees that at least 3 million tons of grain will be harvested this season.
Rains for crops can be more dangerous than heat
At present, all regions, including, among others, the Voronezh region and the Krasnodar Territory, are waiting for the rains.
At the moment, many plants have been affected by drought, but not critical yet.
If it rains in the next 2 weeks, the situation may improve: short-term drought is not critical. If there is no further rainfall, then a large amount of the crop may be lost.
At the same time, according to the vice-president of the Russian Grain Union, Alexander Korbut, the rains, if they fall at the time of harvest, will be even worse than their absence.
“It’s not even the current heat that bothers me. Due to the cool spring, harvesting this season has moved two weeks later. Therefore, we are more worried about whether the rains will overtake us when the time comes for mass harvesting not only in the south, but also in other regions. These will already be serious risks of losses, ”he noted.
Nevertheless, it will be in the coming weeks that it will be possible to understand how significant the crop losses will be due to drought and abnormal heat.
And the faster it rains in most regions, the more crops can be saved.
