17 February 2006PlanetarkSybille de La Hamaide
Scarce rains are stirring fears of a repeat of 2005's severe drought in France and Spain this year, with water reserves already low and falling, officials said on Thursday.
"The situation is...extremely worrying," French Environment Minister Nelly Olin said after a meeting of the national drought committee. The water deficit in much of the country was more than 70 percent at the end of January, she added, up from 50 percent at the start of the month.
After a heatwave in 2003 that killed thousands of people and a dry 2004/2005 winter, France was forced to impose water rationing across the country last year, slapping irrigation curbs on farmers and hosepipe bans on the public.
Olin said even harsher curbs would be enforced this year if water levels remained unchanged by the end of May.
One department (Deux-Sevres) has already imposed maximum water restrictions.
French Farm Minister Dominique Bussereau, who co-hosted the drought committee meeting, said damage to the 2006 grain harvest might exceed last year's losses.
"The drought is moving eastwards so the number of regions affected (by drought) will be greater," he said.
While drought mostly hit southwest France last year, it was now expected to extend to the centre and the north, where some of the largest grain producing regions are located.
MAIZE SOWINGS FALL
The threat of drought had led French and Spanish farmers to sow more winter crops, which are more resistant to dry conditions.
The French farm ministry on Tuesday estimated the total winter grain area at 6.84 million hectares, up 1.4 percent year on year and 4.9 percent above the five-year average.
But later sowings of maize, which needs more water than winter crops, were expected to fall sharply. Maize producers group AGPM last week said sowings, which usually do not take place before March, would fall 9 percent from last season.
Olin said: "In two years maize sowings will have dropped 20 percent."
In Spain, which last year faced an even more severe drought than France, farmers were also likely to plant less maize this year and the crop might fall 20-30 percent from last year's reduced levels, farmers said.
Spain has had rain in January and February, but not enough to raise water levels significantly.
"Reserves are at 48 percent of their total capacity," the environment ministry said on Tuesday. "There has been no rain in the whole of the peninsula (in the past week)."
French analyst Strategie Grains said in a monthly report: "The reduction in maize area compared to last year in Spain and France is greater than what we previously envisaged and could become even more pronounced if rainfall from now on is insufficient." Portugal, by contrast, had heavy rains in the autumn. According to the National Water Institute, 83 percent of Portugal was in a state of "weak drought" and 9 percent in "moderate drought".
Crop planting were normal during the sowing season, the National Statistics Institute said in its latest crop report.
(Additional reporting by Julia Hayley in Madrid and Axel Bugge in Lisbon)
