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News article17 September 2018

Weather improvements too late for crops

More favourable weather came too late to significantly improve the yield outlook of drought affected maize crops in central and northern Europe.
More favourable weather came too late to significantly improve the yield outlook of drought affected maize crops in central and northern Europe.
© Bettina Baruth

According to the September issue of the JRC MARS Crop monitoring in Europe Bulletin, which was published today, yield forecasts for spring and summer crops have once again been revised slightly downwards at the EU level.

The outlook for sunflowers and grain maize remains above the five-year average.

Drought conditions persisted in central and eastern Germany and western Poland during August and September.

In other parts of central and northern Europe, weather conditions have become more favourable since mid-August, but these improvements were generally too small or came too late to significantly improve the yield outlook for crops in these regions.

In eastern Europe, temperatures are still significantly above average (by 2°C to 4°C); and a heatwave occurred at the end of August in southern Hungary and the Black Sea region.

Grain maize and sunflower crops were affected in some regions of southern Europe, but the overall yield outlook remains positive to very positive, except for southern Russia.

Pasture productivity in northern Europe and parts of central Europe recovered slightly from the very low levels observed in August.

In southern Europe, pasture productivity has remained above average thanks to sufficient precipitation to satisfy water demands.

Further information

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MARS bulletins - crop monitoring in Europe

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Publication date
17 September 2018