Styrian farmers suffer from extreme crop failures from climate -minded formation

Styrian farmers suffer from extreme crop failures from climate -minded formation

The Styrian farmers face major challenges this year. After a year full of weather extreme, which was characterized by unexpected and often drastic climatic changes, the crop results are significantly below the normal values. This leads to considerable financial losses and threatens the future of the companies.

At a press conference, Chamber President Franz Titschenbacher expressed that the effects of climate change are omnipresent. Experts reported dramatic losses in the fruit harvest: apple cultivation had a loss of 65 percent, while harvesting was even 70 percent in pears and apricots. Cherries had similar earnings failures, with losses between 70 and 100 percent.

weather extreme and their reasons

The farmers experience a number of adverse weather conditions: an extremely warm February, followed by late frosts and heavy rain, as well as heat waves and drought in the following months have severely affected agricultural yield. "The weather extreme is very concerned about us," says the pumpkin bean Lisa Masser from Dobl-Zwaring. You and your colleagues have to adapt constantly to meet the challenges and try, for example, to protect their pumpkins by planting flower mixtures.

Corn cultivation, which has dropped by 3.5 percent per unit of area, brings a loss of 25 percent in the harvest. With grain, declines of up to 30 percent were also reported. The balance sheet was more positive about the harvested potatoes, while the later harvest suffered greatly from the drought.

innovations in response to the challenges

A positive development could be observed in the genetic engineering soybean, which was able to increase by 15 percent. In viticulture, on the other hand, a high quality, albeit smaller harvest, is expected. Agricultural Councilor Simone Schmiedtbauer emphasized how important it is for the companies to generate income in order to be able to look innovatively into the future. She also mentioned the "Master Plan climate risk of agriculture", which is intended to help farmers to adapt to the increasing climatic challenges.