You’d have to go back at least 20 years to find a grain and sunflower campaign as disastrous as the one about to close in the province of Alicante. And criminals have names and surnames because they High temperatures combined with persistent drought led to a production loss of 14,000 tons.This represents 90% of the total harvest and economic losses approaching five million euros.
Climate change is having disastrous effects on the Alicante countryside, and grains and sunflowers have not escaped. Ricardo Ferri, the representative of this sector in Asaja Alicante, points out that all conditions were working against the crop from the very beginning. In his own words, “The drought hit us precisely during the grain planting season, so much so that when the rains came in May, most of it had dried out. The final touch was the strong warmth that never left us.”
Sunflower planting postponed to JuneIt is usually done in April or May, taking advantage of the rains that fall during that period. This led to a delay of almost two months in the usual crop cycle, which eventually resulted in payment of its consequences.
The result of these extreme conditions was a disastrous campaign. loss of approximately 13,000 tons of grainThis represents a bill of around four million euros, with another thousand euros completing the five million for sunflowers. This also happens Sunflower prices, which had a sharp rise last season due to the war in Ukraine, dropped significantly this season.It drops from 700 euros per ton to only 300 euros. “Trade from this country has been reactivated enough to have an impact on the price,” he emphasizes.
Asaja’s representative underlines that the reduction in harvest is so direct that “many fields were not even harvested, because the only thing we would achieve was to accumulate more losses.”
In addition to all this, it is also a fact that most farms are uninsured.Ferri explains that “coverage was minimal and conditions were very challenging.” “So most of us producers will not get any compensation for what happened.”
They agree with the assessment of La Unió Llauradora’s Asaja and do not hesitate to state that the campaign has been a disaster. In this context, they emphasize that: On most farms, production is so low that it is not worth harvesting.Because the return is below 90%, the cost of collecting is much higher than the value of what is collected.
The agricultural organization confirms that drought relief is not enough to compensate for serious losses. He thinks that it is necessary to voice policies that will provide income in the most disadvantaged areas.. Among these, agricultural insurance policies that subsidize insurance or adjust yields, as well as measures put forward by Unió that can protect the risk of non-germination per plot, are becoming increasingly necessary. Therefore, they call on the new Ministry of Agriculture to take this bad campaign into account and act accordingly.
Damage from wildlife attacks on fields
In addition to being affected by the consequences of meteorological and climatic adversities, farmers also have to face increasingly serious damages caused by wildlife attacks on fields. This is stated by Ricardo Ferri, who has farms next to the mountainous regions of l’Alcoià and who assures that during the last three years wild boars and mouflons from nearby areas have been visiting with increasing frequency. “They eat everything,” he laments, “so much so that I had to stop planting some plots of land because it was a complete waste of money as I could collect almost nothing.” mv