14 March 2007PlanetarkJulia Hayley
Spain, with two years of drought behind it, has had plenty of rain, although some regions still face water restrictions.
Farmers in Italy are concerned about their wheat and maize crops and water management is a growing issue as growers and energy companies vie for access to water reserves.
Italy's Civil Defence said rainfall between September and February was abnormally low and water levels in many lakes and rivers in the north -- where main reservoirs are located -- were below levels considered critical.
Average rains nationally were 20-40 percent below normal while in the northeast and centre they were down 50-60 percent.
Civil Defence has stopped short of declaring a crisis but said the start of the farm irrigation season in May might trigger serious water shortages.
Farmers and grain traders said the hot and dry winter had raised worries about the quality of wheat, which may be weak and vulnerable to disease, and maize, which is yet to be planted. Agricultural research body ISMEA said last Wednesday the dry weather, should it persist, might damage grain yields and cited reports of delays in wheat germination.
"The winter was too warm, so we can see poor yields and lower production," said Rolando Manfredini, analyst at Italy's biggest farmers' association Coldiretti.
Traders said wheat output should be at least stable from last year because sowings had risen, though they were worried about crop quality.
RAIN IN HUNGARY NOT ENOUGH
Hungary's weather has turned more favourable for grains in the past two months, but rains have yet to make up for the long dry spell late last year, farmers' group MOSZ said.
"The situation has improved significantly but the shortage of moisture is still substantial," MOSZ Chief Adviser Andras Uhercsak said.
"In the last half year we have had 50 percent of the precipitation of a normal year."
At the same time the unusually mild weather had favoured autumn grains such as wheat, Uhercsak said.
The temperature only dropped below freezing on a few days, though that might have been enough to harm plants on around 150,000 hectares that were planted late and were in a more vulnerable phase, he said.
Hungary has had big grain crops of up to 16 million tonnes in the past three years, but Agriculture Minister Jozsef Graf has warned output might fall sharply this year.
GREECE NEEDS RAIN
Greece has had very little rain since November and had its driest January in about 50 years. Farmers fear for the harvest.
They planted about 20 percent more grain this year after a drop in 2006 and are turning to grain instead of sugar beet and cotton, General Confederation of Greek Agrarian Associations board member Charalambos Orfanidis told Reuters.
Orfanidis said the maize and wheat harvests could be severely affected by the dry spell.
"The winter has been essentially dry -- no rain and no snow in the mountains to allow build-up of water reserves," he said.
"The months of April and May now require regular rainfall, which is unlikely ... It looks like a bad year."
He said farmers had not been deterred from planting maize despite early signs of an extended dry period.
DROUGHT SPECTRE RETREATS IN IBERIA
Spain had a warm and wet February with well above average rain or snow in major grain regions like Castilla-Leon, Extremadura, southwest Andalusia and the lower part of Aragon.
Almeria in the southeast, where much of Spain's fruit and vegetables are grown, had an abnormally dry month, the Meteorological Institute said.
Growing conditions for wheat and barley are optimal, farmers and grain traders say, but there is concern about irrigation water for maize in some areas and farmers may opt to plant less as a result. Planting usually starts in March in the south. "We're having a good year so far with steady rain and the wheat and barley crops are coming along well," said Ramon Garcia, crop specialist based in Andalusia at farm union COAG.
Andres del Campo, president of the national irrigation federation, said the situation was more serious than it looked in parts of the south and centre.
"It has rained, but is hasn't been enough to fill reservoirs in the Guadalquivir, for instance," he said.
Farmers in the Guadalquivir river basin, which covers most of southern and eastern Andalusia, will only get 20 or 30 percent of the normal allowance of water but are being swayed by high maize prices, he said.
"It worries me that people are taking the risk and sowing in spite of not having water," he told Reuters.
Some 400,000 hectares in the basin -- half the total irrigated area there -- would get only 1,500 cubic metres of water per hectare this year, he said. Maize needs 7,000 or 8,000 cubic metres of water per hectare in the Spanish climate.
In Portugal, rain and temperatures have been close to normal and no water problems are reported.
