climate
Increasing drought disrupts the growth of agricultural plants
The spring drought is increasing, the growth of agricultural plants is at risk, especially in the north-east. Photo: Armin Weigel/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
In spring the vegetation awakens. But between March and May, according to experts, it will become increasingly dry in Germany. In the long run, this affects the development of important agricultural crops such as rapeseed and maize.
According to experts, an increasing drought in spring in Germany is affecting the growth of important agricultural plants.
The north-east is hardest hit, where it no longer rains for about 40 days from mid-March to mid-May, said Tobias Fuchs from the German Weather Service (DWD) when presenting the DWD climate status report on Tuesday. “This increase in spring drought, of all things, in a period in which the vegetation is “awakening” and has a high need for water, leads to considerable impairments in plant development,” explained the head of the “Climate and Environment” division in Berlin.
At the moment, however, the situation for agriculture is not yet problematic: Because February was very wet, in many places only the layers of soil around 10 to 20 centimeters deep were initially dry, said Fuchs. In deeper layers, on the other hand, water could be stored. Only prolonged drought in April and May could endanger the growth of agriculturally important plant species. This March alone was already the sunniest in more than 70 years, as the DWD announced on Monday.
Plants take off – normally
In general, according to Fuchs, soil moisture is “vital” for agriculture and forestry. Crops such as winter cereals, oilseed rape, maize and sugar beets usually start growing after the winter dormancy or are sown in the spring. According to Fuchs, cultivation methods would have to be adapted to the changed conditions, for example by farmers additionally irrigating their crops.
Accordingly, 2018, 2019 and 2020 were extremely dry years in Germany. It was only last year, which was significantly rainier, that the situation relaxed for the most part. According to Fuchs, the three-year drought stress on the soil led to a significant decline in grassland yields in many regions, and there was also serious damage to the forests.
“Unfortunately, we have to assume that such droughts will occur more frequently and perhaps more severely with increasing global warming,” says Fuchs. The DWD’s soil moisture viewer, which has been in existence since mid-2021, offers current data on soil moisture nationwide.
According to the climate status report, the year 2021 clearly confirmed the global warming trend. “Climate change is becoming more and more directly noticeable to all of us, it does not remain an abstract statistical parameter,” said Andreas Becker, head of the DWD climate monitoring department. The average temperature was 9.2 degrees Celsius, just under one degree above the value of the reference period 1961 to 1990.