the agrarian organization COAG has shared this Thursday its latest updated report that analyzes the impact that the drought is having on the agricultural sector in Spain. According to their data, up to 80% of the field is suffering serious or very serious consequences, especially cereal and rainfed crops, with irreversible losses in various communities.
Thus, according to COAG, the harvests of wheat and barley in Andalusia, Extremadura, Castilla La Mancha, Murcia, Aragon, Community of Madrid, Catalonia and Castilla y León. They also warn that the cultivation of rice in Andalusia will hardly be possible this year, and they anticipate that the harvests of nuts and olives in the southern half of the peninsula they will barely reach 20% of the normal figures, depending on the area.
COAG emphasizes that the drought situation that the country has been suffering for months is “worrisome and widespread“, and that “it is seriously compromising various types of crops, with special gravity those cereal crops in dry lands”. In addition, it points out that the irrigation restrictions compromise the cultivation of fruit treeswhich will force many producers to uproot trees.
Sectors such as extensive livestock farming, especially agriculture, are also suffering the effects of the drought. sheep-goat and cattle herd, when finding a great shortage of pastures, forcing the producer to resort to feed and fodder to feed the animals, food whose price has doubled in recent times. Likewise, the lack of rain affects the beekeepingleaving the bees without pollen and therefore without the ability to produce honey.
The extraordinary Council of Ministers convened today plans to approve a package of measures to face the consequences of the drought and grant direct aid to farmers, such as exemptions in the agricultural IBI.
Photos | ededchechine – Freepik
In DAP | This year oranges, pears and apples will be smaller: the blame is (surprise) the heat and drought
In DAP | 1,400 Spanish towns are facing a never-before-seen plague of rabbits that is destroying crops