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From our special correspondent in Spain – An early scorching heatwave across Spain has worsened the impact of the country’s long-term drought, causing unprecedented damage to the country’s crops. As farmers grow desperate for irrigation, the government’s plan to limit the rerouting of water from the nation’s longest river – the Tagus – for agricultural purposes lies at the centre of a heated debate. FRANCE 24 reports.
The mathematics of drought are extremely simple for Ricardo Ferri, a Spanish farmer from the Valencian community: after 100 days without rain, he has lost 100% of his crops.
The earth on his 55-hectare property is deeply desiccated. Wheat plants are only a quarter of the size they should be – they’ve basically stopped growing since the last rainfall in early February. It’s as if time has been suspended.
“Wherever you look, the soil is completely dry, there is not a single drop of humidity! It’s the first time I’ve lost everything because of the drought … It’s the same for all cereal farmers in this area,” Ferri told FRANCE 24.
The problem is far from being limited to this single region. The Coordinator of Farmers and Ranchers Organisations (COAG) warned in mid-April that the country’s long-term drought was causing “irreversible losses” to more than 5 million hectares of crops in Andalusia (south), Extremadura (east), Castilla-La Mancha (centre), and Murcia (south-east).
Cereals such as wheat and barley are the worst impacted because a drastic shortage of water in spring means that the grain will not be harvested in summer – even if rain returns. Farmers like Ferri have written the harvest off…
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