Crimea is entering a weakly productive climate year – experts

Crimea has entered a dry period, and record harvests should not be expected this year.

But new orchards and vineyards are starting to bear fruit, which will give a good harvest of fruits and vegetables, the Ministry of Agriculture of Crimea predicts, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.

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According to First Deputy Minister of Agriculture Alima Zaredinova, spring field work continues, sowing spring crops is underway on an area of ​​270 thousand hectares.

“Today, most winter seedlings are in satisfactory condition,” she noted. “There are certain difficulties due to moisture deficiency and lack of precipitation, but we hope that everything can improve in the spring. The most productive precipitation, which affects the formation of the crop, falls in April and May.”

Last year, Crimea harvested a record harvest of more than two million tons of grain and 129 thousand tons of grapes.

“I think that this year’s grape harvest will be no less, since those young vineyards that were planted during this nine-year period are starting to bear fruit, and, given that it was intensive vineyards that were planted, varieties that give a good harvest, of course We plan to collect no less than last year. But we hope that there will be more,” the deputy minister noted. “As for grain crops, farmers here will probably confirm my words that there is no high harvest for several years in a row.”

The Deputy Minister clarified that agricultural producers themselves determine the crops for planting, and, first of all, the market regulates the crops. Eight years without water for irrigation have taught farmers to use drought-resistant and frost-resistant varieties.

“The period when they worked without Dnieper water in the canal led to the fact that the crops changed very much, and the geography of their plantings changed - in 2014-16 we had the same grapes, fruit crops were mainly planted in the central and southern parts of the republic, now, using those technologies that make it possible to obtain frost-resistant and drought-resistant varieties of the same grapes or fruit crops, we are increasing the area in the Leninsky, Dzhankoysky, Krasnoperekopsky districts. Producers are expanding the geography of perennial plantings, vineyards, and, in principle, everything else,” Zaredinova emphasized.

Deputy Director for Scientific Work of the Research Institute of Agriculture of Crimea Lyudmila Radchenko added that this is not only about the amount of precipitation - the air temperature is rising, which leads to the evaporation of moisture.

“We analyze weather conditions and they have changed over the last 30 years, especially in our area. As for temperatures, they increased by 2°. We consistently see an increase from the fall of last year to the spring period, every decade, 3-5° higher than it was even in previous years. As for the amount of precipitation, in general, according to long-term data, it has increased slightly, but it is basically economically useless. That is, if you add up the total, it seems to be the same as usual, but the small amount that falls 2-3 mm and at elevated temperatures does not give an effect,” the scientist emphasized.

– As for the conditions of this year, during the autumn-winter period this year there was 20% less precipitation than in previous years. With this amount of precipitation and temperature, there is little productive moisture in the meter layer. In the upper layer, even if there is moisture, there are literally several days of windy weather, and the ground is dry. But the meter layer is the moisture that the plants will feed on, because the root system is now located at this depth, and it should pull from there.

But under the conditions of this year, and we analyzed almost all areas, including with the help of satellite monitoring, the soaking is very weak, somewhere up to 56 cm in total. Afterwards it is mostly dry. Therefore, we need to hope for spring precipitation, but in general, I think that this year, of course, we will not get the harvest that we had in the past.”