May snow can ruin the harvest
Apparently, fortune is turning away from domestic farmers. If in previous years record harvests were largely facilitated by the weather (as if to order), this spring has not pleased us. The May frosts that swept across a large territory of Russia can greatly affect the gross harvest.
Alarming messages are already appearing on social networks. They say, we will be left without bread and what should we do? Buy crackers and flour before their prices skyrocket…
The situation is really difficult. According to Hydromet reports, in some areas of the Krasnodar Territory, nighttime temperatures on the soil surface on May 6 dropped to minus 4 degrees.
Temperatures were recorded even lower in the first days of May in the Rostov and Voronezh regions, where, as in the Kuban, The spring sowing campaign is in full swing. In the Voronezh region, according to preliminary estimates, 245 thousand hectares of various agricultural crops have already been destroyed.
In addition to the south of Russia, large-scale frosts with snow cover are also observed in the Central, Volga and North Caucasus federal districts.
< p>In total, as of May 6, 16.9 million hectares were sown with spring crops in the country — 30% of the planned area. However, not only these crops perished. Winter crops were also severely damaged.
In three regions of the country — Voronezh, Lipetsk and Tambov regions, a state of emergency has been introduced. It has never been introduced so quickly in Russia. But time is money. In an emergency situation, insurers are obliged to pay the peasants who insured their crops as soon as possible so that they have time to replant the lost crops.
Will they succeed or not? We asked an expert.
“From the point of view of field crop production, the year will be difficult,” says independent agricultural expert Alexander Korbut. — Winter and spring grain crops have suffered significantly. The situation is extremely difficult with vegetables in open ground and oilseeds. So, a sunflower germinates at plus 4 degrees, and bends at minus 4.
Fruit trees and berry bushes will be severely damaged. They began to bloom in warm weather — and suddenly frosts…
— We don’t yet know the exact scale of the disaster. But the bad thing is that frosts swept through very large rural regions, our traditional breadbaskets.
— We will fulfill our plans. The domestic market needs 82 million tons of grain. And even with all the weather disasters, we will collect at least 130-135 million tons.
Plus we still have quite significant carryover stocks of bread from last year’s harvest.
— Promise — it's a good thing. But in addition to resources, you also need money, and with that it’s more difficult. In addition, we need seeds of crops that will be able to undergo normal vegetative development during the remaining period and produce a decent harvest.
.- Partially — yes. And only on those fields that have not received fatal damage. And if there is nothing left to save, then you will have to leave everything as it is in order to get to clean steam. That is, give the fields a rest.
But this is far from a disaster; our farmers have experienced not such problems.