Wheat: Farmers, standing before a winter season, hope for the best
January 5, 2018 at 2:20 PM ,
Starry Night Ltd.
Wheat: where do sowed acreages for the next season stand?
BULGARIA. For the upcoming harvesting season, according to the most recently released data by the Ministry of Agriculture, farmers planted a wheat area of 1,100,255 ha and managed to collect the highest, for at least a period of two decades, output - 5,900,000 mt. At that time last year, sowed land came to 1,089,366 ha. The higher rate of sowed acreages for the next season comes as no surprise since locally grown wheat quickly finds its way onto foreign markets; in addition, the climate in Bulgaria, specifically in the North regions, is quite auspicious for producing high quality grains.
Indeed, farmers within the Northeast region or the Golden Dobrudja region -- the so called Granary of Bulgaria -- produce the highest quality and largest quantities of wheat. The majority of output is harvested throughout the North regions and the Southeast. So far so good; yet, farmers have a winter season to go through!
Weather: will it turn out to be the benevolent or the scourge key factor this season?
Whether last year’s optimal conditions, favoring an average yield of 5.27 mt/ha or by 10% higher on a year-to-year basis, according to local authorities, will repeat themselves remains to be seen. However, going into January 2018, the weather for the last several weeks has been characterized by unusually higher than normal temperatures, which will definitely affect the vegetation processes of the grains; in addition, the weather conditions are already activating rodents in the fields, which could inflict serious losses to farmers.
Depending on the shift of temperatures in the beginning of February and the falling of frosts, the crop could be damaged substantially, provided the Winter turns out to be only dry and cold, without providing thick snow cover – the so necessary cushion against lower temperatures and winterkill. In addition, the longer presence of thick snow will allow for the build-up of the so necessary moisture reserves in the soil, which later in the season will support a strong vegetation process for the crop. However, for the month of January 2018, temperatures are forecasted to reach as much as 13 to 15°С, at places, while rains are projected as occasional, at best.
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