Latest news with #harvest
The Independent
a day ago
- Climate
- The Independent
Farmers' harvest in limbo after UK endures driest spring in nearly 70 years
British farmers are bracing for potentially disastrous harvests following the hottest spring on record, compounded by the driest conditions seen in decades, new analysis reveals. The Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) warns that climate change is already having a "devastating" impact on farmers, food security and shopping bills, and that recent weather extremes will negatively impact the upcoming harvest. The warning comes as concerns mount that the Government will cut funding for sustainable farming in the upcoming spending review. Farmers and environmentalists warn that such cuts would undermine efforts to restore nature, build resilience to climate shocks, and support rural communities. Martin Lines, chief executive of the Nature Friendly Farming Network, said this year's arable harvest was "on a knife edge" and stressed the need for funding to build resilience. Experts say that nature-friendly farming measures, such as promoting healthy soils and boosting natural predators of crop pests, can significantly enhance agriculture 's resilience to climate extremes. Mr Lines, who farms in Cambridgeshire, said: 'Months of dry weather have left my crops stressed, with their yield potential now capped even if we get a good bit of rain. 'This is what farming in a changing climate looks like.' And he said: 'It's wreaking havoc with my ability to plan and many farmers are now facing yet more financial losses this harvest, just as support for nature-friendly farming is being called into question. 'Nature-friendly farming is the backbone of rural resilience. Cutting funding now won't save money; it will cost us all in the long run,' he warned. The UK has experienced its hottest spring in records dating back to the 19th century, and its driest in more than 50 years with rainfall at just 40 per cent of average levels. England suffered the driest three months from March to May in more than 100 years, Met Office figures show. The north-west of England is already in drought, and the Environment Agency has warned of the risk of more widespread drought without sustained rainfall. Analysis from ECIU estimates the production of the main arable crops – wheat, barley, oats and oilseed rape – could once again be near all-time lows, following the third-worst harvest on record last year after the extreme rainfall in winter 2023/2024. The assessment draws on the most recent crop development survey from the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB), which identified a major decline in crop conditions due to the dry spring, reducing yield potential despite recent rainfall. It looks at three scenarios, reflecting what might happen with rainfall in the coming weeks. If crop condition is maintained at current levels, yields would be in line with last year, leading to a worse harvest than 2024, due to fewer acres of oilseed rape and spring barley planted outweighing an increase in wheat, and making 2025 the second-worst harvest in records dating back to the 1980s. If rain helps crop conditions improve and yields recover to the 10-year average, the UK harvest would be the seventh-worst on record, the ECIU estimates. And if crop condition continues to decline and yields are equivalent to 2020 – the worst harvest so far since the detailed records began in 1984 – this year could become the worst harvest on record. Tom Lancaster, land, food and farming analyst at ECIU, said: 'Climate change is already having a devastating impact on UK farming and our collective food security, pushing up shopping bills and leaving many farmers at the end of their tether. 'Although it's too early to tell what the true impact will be of this record-breaking dry spring, we know enough to conclude that it will have had a negative impact.' He said scientists were clear warmer springs were a feature of climate change, making the impact of a dry spring more severe, while extreme wet winters were also being fuelled by rising global temperatures. Many crops were hit by extreme rainfall in England last September and October, just as winter crops should have been drilled, delaying them to the spring and making them more vulnerable to the recent dry, warm weather. 'In this volatile context, the outcome of the spending review next week will be a crucial moment for farming in this country, and whether the Government realises what's at stake for UK farming and food security in a rapidly changing climate,' Mr Lancaster said.
The Independent
a day ago
- Climate
- The Independent
Eight expert tips for growing a bumper strawberry crop this summer
British strawberries are off to an exceptional start this season, buoyed by ideal growing conditions, according to British Berry Growers. The combination of warm days, cool nights, and record-breaking sunshine has led to one of the most bountiful early harvests in recent years. While the Wimbledon Tennis Championships traditionally herald the peak of strawberry season, with approximately 200,000 portions of strawberries and cream enjoyed by attendees, there's a unique pleasure in savouring home-grown strawberries picked fresh. Fortunately, growing your own strawberries isn't too tricky – even for beginners. The weather makes a difference 'The weather has been very kind to all growers,' says Jim Floor, managing director of berry growers Hall Hunter. 'We had a very cold February and March, then from April onwards it's been sunny – and strawberries love sunshine. 'The nights have been quite cool and the perfect environment for strawberries is 20 degree days and 10 degree nights.' Plenty of bees help If you have a garden with plenty of plants which attract pollinators, such as open-flowered geum, iberis, cranesbill geraniums, lavender and heathers, you're likely to get better crops because the bees will pollinate the strawberry flowers. For the biggest harvests… You'll need plenty of space for a strawberry patch if you want a huge crop, and will need to plant numerous plants. Alternatively, you can grow strawberries in pots but because of the limited number of plants you can accommodate, your yield may be limited. Many types produce new runners after flowering, which create new plantlets on their own. You can also plant different varieties of strawberries to extend the season – summer-fruiting types, perpetual strawberries which produce a smaller quantity of fruit from summer until autumn, and Alpine, or wild, strawberries, which bear small crops of tiny berries spasmodically during summer. Plug plants are a good bet and are available in garden centres and nurseries from late spring onwards, or alternatively you can buy bare-root plants, known as runners, which look like root clumps, in late summer or early autumn, and again in spring. Plant in full sun or in polytunnels where they will be warm and won't become damp, or if outside a raised bed or grow bag is a good option, Floor suggests. 'I grow them in a hanging basket (at home) because they tend to do much better if they're not (at ground level) in the soil, where there are lots of pests and diseases.' During the growing season, make sure they are fed and watered regularly. 'I would recommend a balanced multi-purpose liquid feed. 'If you want sweeter strawberries you might want to put more potassium in, but you need to be careful because any overfeeding of potassium, calcium or nitrogen could give you a problem. ' Calcium can burn the leaves, potassium could potentially kill the plants and (overfeeding with) nitrogen, you will get 100% leaves and no fruit. Possible problems Slugs are a threat, he warns. 'Last year because of the mild winter and the wet year the problem was slugs, particularly if you were growing strawberries in the ground. 'This year it's been about keeping everything irrigated. As long as the plants have plenty of water, they will do well.' Birds may also feast on the fruits, so it would be wise to cover your strawberries with netting if you need to keep them at bay. As the fruits emerge, place straw underneath them so the fruits don't brush against the ground and rot. When are they ready to pick? When they are evenly red, he says. 'They don't necessarily come off the stem quite easily. If the fruit comes off easily it may be over-ripe.' After fruiting 'De-leaf the plants a little bit, getting rid of the debris and dead leaves, and there's no reason why they couldn't be kept for another year,' he suggests. Good varieties Strawberries which have received the RHS Award of Garden Merit include 'Hapil', which produces large red fruits and is lauded for its vigorous growth and is well-suited to light or drier soils and to containers; and the late season 'Florence' which has 'exceptional disease resistance' and whose large dark red fruits are produced in mid-July.
Malay Mail
2 days ago
- Business
- Malay Mail
Drought grips China's wheat belt, farmers report up to 50pc drop in yields
XIANYANG, June 4 — About an hour by road northwest of the famed Terracotta Warriors, combine harvesters send out clouds of dust as they work their way through the parched wheat fields of Maqiao village in China's northwestern Shaanxi province. But local farmers like Zhou Yaping say there is little to celebrate. Some of her crop is still tinged with green in a sign it hasn't fully ripened, and she expects she'll get only half the 1,000 kg of wheat her two-thirds of an acre plot usually yields. 'I've been growing wheat for over 20 years, and I've never seen a drought this bad,' said Zhou, 50, during a late May visit. Parts of China's wheat belt in Shaanxi and Henan provinces have been hit hard by hot, dry weather, with the sun baking the soil into cracked slabs and scorching the wheat before it could ripen. Last month, Shaanxi recorded its highest average temperatures since records began in 1961. While official figures are still some six weeks away, more than a dozen farmers in the area and those they hire to harvest the crop told Reuters of losses and small harvests, down as much as half for some. In some parts of the province, the drought was so bad farmers brought the harvest forward by a week. And while rain finally arrived in recent days, bringing some relief, it has also threatened to disrupt the harvest for those who waited. It is too early to know whether the drought could prompt China to import more wheat, although that would be good news for growers in places including Australia, which expects high end-of-season wheat stocks, partly due to a drop in Chinese imports. Ample wheat stocks and tepid demand have also curbed China's import appetite, traders said. 'The drought has had a significant impact on wheat yields in areas with poor irrigation infrastructure, but the overall reduction in output is not expected to be substantial,' Rosa Wang at Shanghai agro-consultancy JCI told Reuters. As of May 30, about 60 per cent of the wheat crop in Henan and more than 20 per cent in Shaanxi had been harvested, according to state news agency Xinhua. Conditions vary across the vast agricultural belt. In Henan province, often called China's granary, a farmer surnamed Ma who runs a 20.23 hectares farm in Xinxiang said his output held steady because of irrigation. But damage was clear elsewhere in the province. In Zhumadian, another farmer, named Zhang, said he harvested 1.65 acres of wheat on May 23, more than a week earlier than usual due to the heat. Zhang, who spoke over the phone, said his yield was down 40 per cent, similar to 2023 when floods led to sprouting and blight. 'After covering the costs of seeds, harvesting, and ploughing, we just break even with little to no profit,' he said. Ma and Zhang declined to share their full names for reasons of privacy. — Reuters
Reuters
2 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Drought bakes China's wheat belt, slashing harvests for some
XIANYANG, China, June 4 (Reuters) - About an hour by road northwest of the famed Terracotta Warriors, combine harvesters send out clouds of dust as they work their way through the parched wheat fields of Maqiao village in China's northwestern Shaanxi province. But local farmers like Zhou Yaping say there is little to celebrate. Some of her crop is still tinged with green in a sign it hasn't fully ripened, and she expects she'll get only half the 1,000 kg of wheat her two-thirds of an acre plot usually yields. "I've been growing wheat for over 20 years, and I've never seen a drought this bad," said Zhou, 50, during a late May visit. Parts of China's wheat belt in Shaanxi and Henan provinces have been hit hard by hot, dry weather, with the sun baking the soil into cracked slabs and scorching the wheat before it could ripen. Last month, Shaanxi recorded its highest average temperatures since records began in 1961. While official figures are still some six weeks away, more than a dozen farmers in the area and those they hire to harvest the crop told Reuters of losses and small harvests, down as much as half for some. In some parts of the province, the drought was so bad farmers brought the harvest forward by a week. And while rain finally arrived in recent days, bringing some relief, it has also threatened to disrupt the harvest for those who waited. It is too early to know whether the drought could prompt China to import more wheat, although that would be good news for growers in places including Australia, which expects high end-of-season wheat stocks, partly due to a drop in Chinese imports. Ample wheat stocks and tepid demand have also curbed China's import appetite, traders said. "The drought has had a significant impact on wheat yields in areas with poor irrigation infrastructure, but the overall reduction in output is not expected to be substantial," Rosa Wang at Shanghai agro-consultancy JCI told Reuters. As of May 30, about 60% of the wheat crop in Henan and more than 20% in Shaanxi had been harvested, according to state news agency Xinhua. Conditions vary across the vast agricultural belt. In Henan province, often called China's granary, a farmer surnamed Ma who runs a 50-acre (20.23 hectares) farm in Xinxiang said his output held steady because of irrigation. But damage was clear elsewhere in the province. In Zhumadian, another farmer, named Zhang, said he harvested 1.65 acres of wheat on May 23, more than a week earlier than usual due to the heat. Zhang, who spoke over the phone, said his yield was down 40%, similar to 2023 when floods led to sprouting and blight. "After covering the costs of seeds, harvesting, and ploughing, we just break even with little to no profit," he said. Ma and Zhang declined to share their full names for reasons of privacy.
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Climate change adds to Syria'a problems as Damask rose harvests fade
Sitting in his front sittingroom, surrounded by embroidery, painted plates and ceramics decorated with pink Damask roses, Amin Hamza al-Bettar reflects on the harvest season, which has just finished: 'extremely, extremely bad'; 'extraordinary ... like a desert'. The Damask rose harvester, who turns 90 this year, says the season was both 'short and late'. In 2024, his family business harvested 4,000kg of roses on their 180 acres of land, while this year it was 300kg, he says. While the season should begin on May 5th, and last between 25 days and a month, this year it lasted 10 days, and began on May 15th. Bettar's village, Qaldoun Al Marah in Syria , is famous for its rose industry. In 2019, the village's 'practices and craftsmanship associated with the Damascene rose' were inscribed on Unesco's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The accompanying notes suggested it could be seen as 'a tool for sustainable development and ... contribute to building a harmonious relationship between human beings and nature'. Bettar's four sons work for the family company, along with one other employee. From a distillery in his home, they create rose water and extract essence that they sell for $60 (€53) per gram – it takes 8,000kg of roses to extract 1kg. The essence is used in cosmetics and perfume. Bettar is proud of the fact that they use no chemicals in their says their machines are 'primitive, old style': the 'process is all natural'. READ MORE But now their business is a victim of the drought and climate change affecting much of Syria. While Bettar says he has seen individual years as dry as this before, the prolonged nature of the drought, combined with the dryness of surrounding years, is unheard of and the overall situation has been noticeably deteriorating since 2000. Amin Hamza al Bettar (89) says rose season this year was "extremely" bad. Photograph: Sally Hayden The usual snow and rainwater that reaches the village meant the 'plants used to grow themselves', says Bettar. But 'this year it only rained a few times, 5ml, then 10 days without rain'. The water that falls 'evaporates immediately, it doesn't penetrate the soil'. A 2023 study by the World Weather Attribution academic collaboration found that the probability of droughts in Syria and neighbouring Iraq has increased from a one-in-250-year event to a one-in-10-year event, with the current estimated human-induced warming of 1.2 degrees. This could move to a one-in-five-year event if global warming increases by another 0.8 degrees, the study said. The combination of climate change and badly damaged infrastructure is calamitous. By 2022, Unicef said the nearly 14-year-long war and economic crisis in Syria had led to the large-scale destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure across the country, with an estimated one third of treatment plants and water towers, one sixth of wells, and half of pumping stations in Syria damaged. Just over 70km by car from Qaldoun Al Marah is the Ein el Fijeh spring. It feeds the Barada river and is supposed to provide more than a million homes in Damascus and its suburbs with water, but it is almost dry. Ahmad Darwish, head of the Damascus City Water Supply Authority, told the Associated Press that this year had the lowest rainfall since 1956. When The Irish Times visited the spring in late May, employees said the lack of rain and snow were hugely concerning, but also that bombing of the spring's surroundings during the war and the devastating 2023 earthquake had badly damaged the area, compounding the situation. Syrians prepare to irrigate roses in Qaldoun Al Marah. Photograph: Sally Hayden The shifting climate means Damask rose farmers are taking measures they never needed before. On his land on the outskirts of Qaldoun Al Marah, Mohammed Abdo Abbas (64) wears a keffiyeh on his head to protect himself from the baking sun. He watches as another man pulls a tank on a tractor, watering each rose bush in turn with a hose. Abbas says he pays 250,000 Syrian pounds (€25) a day for fuel and workers to transport the water from wells to irrigate his land. 'We are only irrigating because of the lack of rain, normally we don't do it,' he says. If Abbas didn't own the tractor himself, the cost would not be worth the return. Locals used to make big purchases during harvest season because they had an influx of cash, Abbas recalls. Rose growing 'was my ancestors', and my parents', and my job, but this year we have less than 25 per cent of the normal season', he says. 'We don't blame anyone, not the government, it's climate change. The issue is these roses, they need snow. If it doesn't snow the season is not good.' He says snow used to reach three metres high in winter but 'we haven't seen snow in five years, despite this being a mountain area'. Snow and lower temperatures keep insects under control, but now they are proliferating. Hundreds of years ago, Lebanese traders used to arrive to buy the roses on mules, exporting them through France. 'All the village used to do this because it was very beneficial business,' says Abbas. Graffiti on the wall of a distillery in Qaldoun Al Marah. Photograph: Sally Hayden With international sanctions on Syria largely lifting following the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime last December , Syrian businesspeople are enthused at the prospect of trading internationally. Damask rose growers say their industry could help Syria recover and develop. 'For us this is our goal, our purpose to export our products to Europe and all over the world,' says al Bettar. When Bettar was young, he was told that Sufi clerics used to go to the mountains to pray for rain. Now, with no obvious remedy for the climate, he worries people 'will become poor and look for something else. We don't want the farmers to look for something else because they will abandon this profession.' Villagers have started to leave Qaldoun Al Marah for Syria's big cities, or launch other businesses, because it has become so much harder to farm roses, says al Bettar, who serves visitors pink rose water in glasses to drink. He says it would help farmers if the state 'helped us dig more wells and made it easier for us to access water, started to irrigate regularly in a very scientific way'. He believes many tourists would be interested in visiting, as they did before the revolution in 2011 and subsequent war. Amin Hamza al Bettar in the distillery inside his home in Qaldoun Al Marah, Syria. Photograph: Sally Hayden The village received support under the former Syrian regime, with al Bettar saying Asma al-Assad, Bashar's wife, had been appreciative of their efforts. The new authorities have shown interest too, al Bettar says. Recently, the new director of the agricultural sector for their area came to fix a pump in the village, though farmers still struggle getting the water from it to the rose bushes. And Abbas says the future is unpredictable, because drought is changing the natural environment completely. 'Rose plants should live 60 years but now [they last] 25 years because of the harsh weather,' he says. 'Our country, our region has been famous for these plants for thousands of years ... This is the source of our life here ... It's survival for us.' – Hani Alagbar assisted with this reporting. The Damask rose harvest has shrunk as a result of drought-related climate change. Photograph: Sally Hayden
