Weather Lifts Western Europe Crops, Worries in France
Date: 24-Mar-05
Country: UK
Author: David Cullen
Drought worries persist among some French farmers despite light showers this week. "The weather situation remains a concern because the showers were insufficient to calm down producers' worries," French grain analyst Agritel said.
Parts of France, mainly in the west, have received little rain over the past six months and water reserves are now at their lowest in 50 years.
The environment minister this week described the situation as "very worrying" although not catastrophic at this stage.
Water restrictions were put in place earlier this month in the Deux-Sevres and Vienne regions in western France, where the irrigation of cereals crops has been banned.
The drought worries have also lifted prices and led French farmers to consider switching out of maize, which needs more water than other crops.
But French analyst Strategie Grains said it was too early to predict any fall in final crop yields.
"Whilst there has been no damage to crops so far (due to the plants' limited water requirements at this stage), any water shortage could pose a problem once plant growth resumes," it said.
Weather forecaster Meteo France said it expected rain in France on Thursday and Friday, but showers would only be light in the southwest.
NO VISIBLE PROBLEMS
Crop analysts in Germany said plantings were emerging well after the winter, with no significant frost damage seen and with water in good supply.
Snow cover had been good throughout the country this winter, protecting plantings from frosts.
"Snow melted around the second week of March and gave plantings water to bring them out of their dormant growth phase," one analyst said.
"Since then rain has been pretty regular throughout the country and basically the picture is good with no problems currently visible."
But he said Germany could still get heavy frosts in April and even early May, so the danger of winter weather damage was not yet past.
UK CROPS FLOURISH
In Britain the end of a lengthy cold snap and a move to much warmer conditions had helped crops to flourish, with little real concern yet about drought, analysts said.
"Wheat, winter barley and rapeseed generally look very well," said Patrick Stephenson, chairman of Britain's Association of Independent Crop Consultants.
Stephenson said rains had been below average, but that it was still too early to talk of any impact on yields.
"It has not been too bad in northern areas. I wouldn't say there has been an excess of rain over the winter period by any means, although East Anglia appears to be going short.
"With winter wheat, we've got an important weather window coming up from, say, mid-April onwards, but at the moment it doesn't look like drought will be an issue with us.
"But obviously we'll have to wait and see what the late spring rainfall brings us," Stephenson said.
(Additional reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris and Michael Hogan in Hamburg)