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News article16 December 2020

Warm autumn leads to slow build-up of frost tolerance in winter cereals

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Warmest autumn in eastern and northern Europe
© European Union, 2020

According to the December issue of the JRC MARS Bulletin - Crop monitoring in Europe – which was published on Monday, in most agricultural regions of eastern and northern Europe, autumn 2020 was the warmest on the MARS records.

November was the second warmest November in most of Europe.

As a consequence of the prevailing mild conditions, the build-up of frost tolerance in winter wheat started much later than usual, and remains weak in most of western, southern, central and south-eastern Europe.

Areas where winter crops are underdeveloped as a consequence of delayed sowing - as is the case in large parts of eastern Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania - are particularly vulnerable.

Localised and minor frost-kill events are expected to have occurred already in northern Romania, due to a cold air intrusion at the end of November and the beginning of December.

More widespread minor to moderate frost-kill events are likely to have occurred in the Volga okrug of European Russia.

Further information

JRC MARS (Monitoring Agricultural Resources) Bulletins

The latest information about global agricultural production hotspots for countries with food insecurity risks is available on the JRC’s ASAP (Anomaly hot Spots of Agricultural Production) website.

For email notifications of new Bulletins, please subscribe through the JRC's Agri4Cast ToolBox.

The January 2021 issue of the Bulletin will be published on 25 January.

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JRC MARS (Monitoring Agricultural Resources) Bulletins

Details

Publication date
16 December 2020