Unfavourable weather conditions during May have reduced the sweetness of muskmelons and watermelons. As per farmers, the extreme weather events have ruined the crop, resulting in heavy losses to them.
Severe flooding in the panhandle of Texas has caused cattle losses in the largest cattle feeding region of the country.Ben Weinheimer, president and CEO of the Texas Cattle Feeders Association, told DTN producers in the Hereford area as of Wednesday were unsure about the extent of the livestock losses.
China has urged local authorities to speed up the harvesting and drying of damaged wheat in a bid to save crops from heavy rain amid Beijing’s increased focus on food security.
In Massachusetts, fruit farmers are assessing damage to their crops in the wake of a hard frost May 18 that has affected grape, apple and blueberry growers. In Whately, Sobieski’s River Valley Farm reports that it has lost 75 to 80% of its blueberry crop.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand have called on U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack to provide swift relief to vineyards, farms, and orchards who have suffered major crop damage from the extreme cold weather in May.
This is truly a bad year for Emilia-Romagna: first there was the drought, then the frost followed by the excessive rain and hail and, finally, the flood. "The bad weather that hit the heart of our region as far as the Riviera Romagnola caused serious damage to the agricultural sector," reads a Sipo note.
Since the European stone fruit harvest forecasts were announced, adverse weather conditions have been reported in various producing areas. There have been storms accompanied by hail in Italy, Spain and southern France, and volumes continue to fall.
Talks will be held in Brussels this week as the EU Agricultural Ministers meet to discuss the ongoing drought in several member states, including Spain, Portugal, and Italy. The Spanish delegation has already requested that the European Commission front funds from the agricultural reserve allow the Spanish government to grant badly-needed aid to farmers.
Buying Georgia peaches this year may be challenging as farmers are facing a severe shortage. University of Georgia researchers say about 90% of peach crops grown in the state have been destroyed by bad weather and a warming climate.
The weather has caused some issues for the early apricot varieties in Greece, says Paris Karastergios, import-export coordinator for Greek produce exporter Kastargiou P. Bros S.A.: “The Greek apricot campaign started only two weeks ago, with some Mogador apricots from southern Greece at the beginning and then the season switched to Wonder Cot. Only last week, in our region, some Mogador started, but there were some quality problems.
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Wednesday said an amount of Rs 181 crore has been released to the farmers who have suffered rabi crop damage due to unseasonal rains.
Himachal Pradesh recorded an excess of 84 per cent rainfall in May, the highest in 19 years, taking the state's crop loss in pre-monsoon season to over Rs 192 crore.As against the normal average of 63.3 mm for May, the state received an average of 116.8 mm of rainfall this May, Surender Paul, director at Shimla India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
State Agriculture Commissioner Richard A. Ball on Friday joined state and local leaders, representatives from the New York Wine & Grape Foundation, New York Farm Bureau, the United States Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency (USDA FSA), Empire State Development, and Cornell Cooperative Extension to tour several vineyards in the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions impacted by a recent freeze.
According to the Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives of the Region of Murcia (Fecoam), the heavy rains have caused damages to apricot crops that range between 15 and 20 million euro.
The agricultural season in Morocco is drawing to a close, with the last summer fruit calendars, mainly table grapes, and watermelons. Drought and poor weather conditions have set the tempo for the season and caused a sharp drop in crop yields, even those for which Morocco had achieved export records until recent years.
As reported by representatives of the Latvian Association of Agricultural Cooperatives (LLKA), losses due to spring frosts are reaching approximately €10 million in the country. Representatives from the organization say that in the current situation, the fruit sector needs support from the state, because lost revenue from the harvest will have long-reaching consequences for the entire sector’s development.