In certain territories such as the Pyrénées-Orientales, the water deficit is such that the climate becomes semi-arid. Something to worry fruit and vegetable producers as well as winegrowers. OLIVIER CHASSIGNOLE / AFP
THE CHEKING PROCESS – After 32 days without rain, from January 21 to February 21, cereal farmers and breeders are worried about the months to come.
If the situation is under surveillance, it is not yet critical… While the Minister of Ecological Transition Christophe Béchu said recently, “alarm” by the too low level of soil humidity (32 days without rain between January 21 and February 21), urging the prefects to issue water restriction orders “from now on”, the situation could become critical if it does not rain enough within three weeks, at the time of regrowth. It must be said that farmers have never scanned the sky with such impatience. Especially as summer approaches, temperatures and rainy periods should become rarer.
For now, field crops and grasslands, still in hibernation, are adapting to the current water stress. But the professionals really hope that the forecasts of the meteorologists will materialize. At the risk that this summer’s harvests are compromised. Is right ?
The rain is coming
“From Wednesday, March 8, a change of weather is expected. It should rain 4 to 5 days everywhere in France except around the Mediterranean“Comments Serge Zaka, agro-climatologist well known in the aisles of the Agricultural Show but also on social networks. “This should water well agricultural soils already sown in winter crops such as wheat. But that won’t be enough to start reducing the groundwater deficit.“, he details. According to the specialist, it would have to rain three weeks without stopping until the end of March for it to begin to recharge the water tables.
In certain territories such as the Pyrénées-Orientales, the water deficit is such, -70%, that the climate becomes semi-arid. Something to worry fruit and vegetable producers as well as winegrowers. More generally, falling water tables will reduce the level of irrigation this summer, because at that time the water comes from the water tables and not from the ground on the surface.
Read alsoThe government is mobilizing against the drought
Less impact for fertilizers
Furthermore, since the weather is not an exact science, certain farmers such as Arthur Potier, a grain farmer in the Oise and head of the firm Agritel, which specializes in the exchange of agricultural raw materials, have already been burned by forecasts which did not not verified in the plots. “I had put my fertilizer on the wheat in mid-February because we had been told there would be water, it never came. This is reducing their effects on the plants, as nitrogen needs rain to be taken up by the plants and I am not the only one in this situation“says the farmer.
The absence of rain reduces the impact of fertilizers when they have been applied. Then from spring, in less than three weeks, this will seriously impact the growth of crops already in the ground since autumn, such as wheat. As well as those that will be sown later, such as barley or maize. “The current drought is not yet critical as the plants are in hibernation thanks to the cold weather, adds the young pluriactive farmer. The situation will go from underwatch to critical if there is not enough rain by the end of March. For now, nothing is irreversible.»
Same concern in breeding. “With the drought, the exercise of the trade complicates, admits Yannick Bouillis, breeder of a hundred dairy cows in the country of Dol-de-Bretagne, between Mont-Saint-Michel and Saint-Malo. We put fertilizer on the meadows without result. Faced with fears that 2022 could happen again with sharply declining fodder yields of hay and maize, farmers sold cows for fear of not having enough to feed them. We are reliving the same thing but with a downside. Winter drought has less impact than summer drought because the vegetation is not yet growing. But we absolutely need water with the spring.»
In the surroundings, 5 to 6 mm of rain fell. Nothing to reverse the situation. “Winter stocks are at their lowest. I had to buy straw and trade wheat for grain maize for the cows. We rationalize the number of cattle as much as possible and no longer keep a cow as soon as its milk production drops“, he explains. Only one advantage with this current drought: the soils are better structured and the tractors can go to the wet places of the fields to work the soil or maintain the hedges.
In summary, nothing is irreversible for now. The current drought is not yet critical because the plantations are in hibernation. But one thing is certain: the month of March will be crucial for future harvests.
SEE ALSO – Drought: Elisabeth Borne announces the activation of an “anticipation unit from March”