Its agricultural boom has transformed many southern regions like Rostov, with cultivated fields dominating the landscape. It has also improved the regions’ living standards.
Global warming has opened up new northern areas in Russia for agriculture, but extreme weather patterns have made harvests volatile in southern regions like Rostov.
Fears of lower Russian output helped global wheat prices rally in April, but they had given up much of the gains by June on hopes of better-than-expected Russian yields and higher US production.
The hopes might be premature.
Russia’s agriculture minister Oksana Lut has singled out drought as the main factor that could force the government to revise its grain harvest forecast this year.
Sasunov said he had seen hardly any rainfall in his area since March. Many farmers in the Rostov region also blame frosts, which killed developing sprouts in early spring, for lower harvests.
At the Kirovsk Horse Farm, temperatures fell to -4ºC and -5ºC in early May.
“Indicators were excellent, but then climatic cataclysms began,” said the farm’s deputy head Nikolai Cherkezov.
“Corn is suffering at the moment. Sunflower has been reseeded. All spring harvests are suppressed,” said Cherkezov, referring to damage done by frost and heat.
A poorer than expected crop will fuel Russian inflation, which is running at 8.6%, amid high state spending and wage growth in an economy showing signs of overheating.
Steppe, one of Russia’s largest agricultural companies which owns lands in Rostov and two other key agricultural regions Stavropol and Krasnodar, said it expects its grain harvest to be 10% lower compared to last year.
Agriculture consultancy Sovecon said temperatures in key grain-producing regions will stay two to six degrees above normal in the coming weeks.
Russia’s chief meteorologist Roman Vilfand said periods of extreme heat across Russia will become longer in the coming years, and floods and hurricanes will become more frequent.
Cherkezov said: “Agriculture is an open-air workshop. We cannot break records every year.”
Reuters