After the heavy rain at the weekend many fields are under water. There was damage particularly in the cantons of Fribourg, Bern, Solothurn and Aargau.

Many crops are under water. To make matters worse the crops are still at a very early stage. "It is difficult to assess the situation right now," says Thomas Wyssa, a vegetable farmer from Galmiz FR.

400 damage reports

A lot of water is in the fields especially in the lower areas. It will be difficult, to recover those crops, Wyssa continues. "The carrots and potatoes could rot," he fears.

According to Schweizer Hagel, an insurance company, chiefly potatoes, vegetables and other field crops are affected. There have been 400 damage reports already. The insurance estimates the damage around 3 million francs.

How will the affected farmers be compensated? To answer that, it is important to establish if the crops can survive or not. If they can, the yield loss at harvest time will be compensated. If the crops are unable to be harvested the costs to replace the same or a different culture is compensated.

Entire amount of May rain already fallen

According to an announcement by Meteo Switzerland the rain fall during the past three days normally falls in an average May month. In Changins at Lake Geneva, in Aigle or in Neuenburg the average amounts of rain in May have already been met or even exceeded.

Source - http://www.freshplaza.com/