THE GERMAN POTATO CROP WILL BE POOR DUE TO THE SUMMER DROUGHT

Pico Agriviet

The expected 10.3 million tons of potatoes across Germany is 9% less than last year and 5% below the long-term average. On a national average, it is expected that they will be able to harvest 38 tons of potatoes per hectare this year, which is 12% less than last year’s yield and 8% below the long-term average yield, we read on the fruchthandel.de portal based on data from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture.

Although the area intended for potato cultivation was 8,000 hectares larger than last year (a total of 266,800 hectares), even this does not compensate for the loss due to the enormous drought.

The largest potato-growing region is Lower Saxony, where 46% of the country’s potato area is located, and potatoes were sown on a larger area there than a year ago. There, a total of 5.2 million tons is expected, which is just more than last year.

In any case, the early potatoes picked and sold from the end of May to August 10 survived the worst period in most areas, since the water supply of the soil was still good in the spring, and they were irrigated if possible. This is not the case with the middle-aged and late varieties, whose tuber formation occurred during the greatest summer heat, and the permitted amount of irrigation water was not always enough.

The situation is aggravated by the fact that although the potatoes ripened relatively early, it was not possible to start picking them right away, it was so hot and the soil was so hard (due to the latter, there will be more damaged tubers than usual, the resulting losses will become during storage made obvious).

The rainfall of the last few weeks no longer increases yields, but it at least improves the conditions for harvesting,

Source: https://magyarmezogazdasag.hu/2022/10/02/sovany-lesz-nemet-burgonyatermes-nyari-aszaly-miatt