We have gone from being in one of the warmest and driest winters in history to a month of March with record rainfall and wind in the Mediterranean area. The rains accumulated during the last weeks have completely flooded the fields of the Valencian Community and the Region of Murcia. Many of these early potato fields have not been able to assimilate this water pressure, and their plants have ended up suffocating.
As if that wasn’t enough of a scourge for the countryside, abnormally low temperatures have been recorded throughout the Peninsula in the first week of April. An Arctic cold storm that has left frost and snow at very low levels.
Record rainfall in March
The second half of March left records of record persistent rains in the Valencian Community, causing significant production losses. The damage has not yet been definitively assessed, but the first estimates of the Valencian Association of Farmers (AVA-ASAJA), place the total losses above 25 million euros.
“March 2022 is already the month with the most rainfall since 1,950 in the Valencian Community”
In the Algar, one of the earliest and most productive areas of Spain, in addition to the problem of waterlogging due to the accumulation of rains, the problem of the rise of the water table due to its proximity to the coast is added. So the early potato fields that have already finished their cycle, will not be able to be harvested for a few weeks. During this wait, there is an elevated risk of pests arising from excess moisture, as well as problems with rotting tubers (more information here).
“Last March has been the rainiest since we have data in the Region of Murcia”
Graph with the sum of 30 days of the rainfall recorded in the stations that collected the most rain in that interval, in Region of Murcia, in l/m2. Source: https://x-y.es/aemet/ca-region-de-murcia
Atypical frosts in April
Lucky farmers who have seen how their crops survived the episode of rains and wind, have encountered atypical frosts during the first week of April. This the Arctic cold snap has affected the aerial part of the plant, burning stems and leaves.
Low temperature damage in early potato plant. Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cb8AQoTtCzg/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Potato crops have seen the damage they had suffered from the March rains worsen and, now, with this Arctic air mass they threaten even more to reduce yields.
Posted in: Potato Market
Filed under: Murcia, Valencia
