Drought Leaves Europe's Farmers Helpless

BBC ^ | 7-31-2003 | Alex Kirby

[blam]

Drought leaves Europe's farmers helpless

By Alex Kirby
BBC News Online environment correspondent

Europe is aflame, with little prospect of any imminent change in the weather to cool it off.

We've never had this kind of drought in 50 years

Mauro Pinelli

Four people have died in forest fires in France, and firefighters across the continent are fully stretched.

The forecast for Rome and Lisbon is 37C, for Athens 33C, and no respite is in sight.

For Europe's farmers, totally dependent on the weather, the outlook is dire, and remedies are few.

The European Union has begun to act. Its agriculture ministers debated the drought a week ago, at the insistence of two of the worst-affected countries, Austria and France.

Emergency help

The EU's rotating presidency is held by another badly-hit member, Italy.

The ministers agreed to release some of their stored grain to feed animals at risk from the drought. A quantity of rice has already been provided.

They also agreed to bring forward some of the normal payments which farmers were expecting, to tide them over.

Farmers usually receive about 50% of certain EU payments in advance, but in exceptional circumstances this can be increased to 80%, as it was during the UK's foot-and-mouth disease outbreak.

But these are the only two sorts of EU help on offer at the moment. There has been no discussion yet of possible disaster relief.

Parched fields

From the farmers' organisations come stories of serious and growing problems, with few solutions to try.

Jean-Michel Delmas works for FNSEA (Federation Nationale des Syndicats d'Exploitants Agricoles), a trades union representing French farmers.

He told BBC News Online: "The situation is very serious, especially in the centre of France around the Massif Central.

"It's cattle country, but there's been no rain since March, and the grass is burnt brown. The farmers have nothing to give the beasts unless they bring feed in from Paris.

Unanswered prayers

"It's bad in the north-east of the country as well. But horticulture, fruit and arable crops are not so badly off - there's water for them.

"Sunflowers feel the heat

"The drought is completely unexpected. Every month the farmers have been hoping for more rain, but getting less."

Mauro Pinelli works for the Italian farmers' organisation Coldiretti (Confederazione Nazionale Coltivatori Diretti).

He told BBC News Online: "We think the volume of wine we produce will be about the same as in 2002, which was a low year - but the quality should be up.

"Other crops are a disaster, especially soya, corn and sugar beet. All across the most fertile region, the Po valley in northern Italy, it's terrible.

"The crops need a lot of water. But there's already competition between domestic, industrial and farming users of what water there is.

"The authorities are trying to increase the water levels in the rivers by releasing reserves from the mountains, but they've managed only something like two or three centimetres more.

UK grain gain

"Nobody expected anything like this, even with the prospect of climate change. We've never had this kind of drought in 50 years."

A cross-Europe farmers' organisation based in Brussels, Copa-Cogeca, says the drought has had "truly catastrophic consequences" for farmers in Italy, Germany, Austria, Spain, France and Portugal, and in some of the countries preparing to join the EU.

It has launched a survey of just how bad the problem is, but will have no results until September, because of the long August break.

In the UK, by contrast, the National Farmers' Union said the hot summer meant the wheat harvest was likely to start at least a week early.

[blam]

[blam]

[dufekin]

Did I detect the whiny tone typical of leftist liberals?

Note the source for the graph: the United States of America!

[pcx99]

If this keeps up they may have to (gasp) import genetically enhanced food from the US!

[blam]

Global warming hoax?

[blam]

Global warming hoax?

[dufekin]

Global warming is a hoax; the drought is not a hoax, but as the article stated, something that occurs every half-century or so.

[blam]

"If this keeps up they may have to (gasp) import genetically enhanced food from the US! "

That was my first thought too. Ready for a little GM grain?

[Chi-townChief]

Boy! I wonder what white male Christian Americans did to cause this.

[spunkets]

That map in post #2 says there's no significant change. For the most part, all it's good for is to show where the storms hit in the last 3 months. Drought conditions are a lot more than ~50-75% cut in rain. The article is a big exaggeration.

[Between the Lines]

The four year drought in the southeast US that was caused by global warming ended last August when the rains returned. Since then Charlotte and surrounding areas have received 80 plus inches of rain. That is almost double what the yearly average total is. It is beleved that the excessive rainfall is being caused by global warming.

[exmarine]

So much for the power of mankind to control his environment...

[MissouriForBush]

Over-population of the world is the fundamental problem.

Travel outside of North America sometime and you will understand what I mean.

[dufekin]

That depends. In some areas, a 35% cut in rain over a year can lead to severe water shortages. The definition of a "drought" depends upon the return period associated with certain moisture deficiencies. In general, the period of deficient moisture must be at least 1-2 months but cannot exceed 10-20 years. A moisture deficiency that lasts decades is not a drought; it's a change in climate, which may or may not be anthropogenic. For example, in the eastern United States, a severe drought could result from 2 months with less than 10% normal precipitation or a year with less than 50-60% of normal precipitation. In Nevada, however, 2 months with no precipitation is profoundly normal and by itself cannot constitute a drought.

Much of Europe may experience very little interannual variation in rainfall, therefore, a seemingly small cut in rain could have a profound impact and must be labeled a drought. High temperatures can enhance the impacts of a drought or result directly from a drought in summertime.

[Between the Lines]

Its agriculture ministers debated the drought a week ago, at the insistence of two of the worst-affected countries, Austria and France.

S'ils ne peuvent pas faire le vin. Laissez-les manger des raisons.

[spunkets]

Yes, I know there's details in there I didn't address. Sticking to surface water content, because the article is claiming an impact on farming and the need, or push for govm't cash inputs. If a 35% drop in rain results in severe water shortage, then either the particular crops, or the presence of attempted farming itself is a bad venture. If a 10% change during the growing season has an effect, it's an effect on top of an already dangerously dry condition.

The pics accompanying the article show grass and crops in rocky soil with no organic content. That means the land is arid anyway, on top of severly overused/abused.

[blam]

"The four year drought in the southeast US that was caused by global warming ended last August when the rains returned."

I was in that thing too. We've made up all the rain lost in those four years this spring and summer.