Officials in Russian areas whose fruit orchards and vineyards are vital for feeding the Russia’s people are reporting the recent abnormally cold temperatures are certain to have an adverse effect on this year’s harvest.
In Saratov Kray, where temperatures have dropped to as low as minus 35 Celsius, first deputy Minister of Agriculture Anatoly Kutsenko said despite construction of protective mounds around grapevines. “Those parts of the grapevines that are above the earthen barriers could perish,” Kutsenko said. Kutsenko said only about half of the grapevines were sheltered by these protective barriers.
Elsewhere the problem was much the same.
In Krasnodar Kray, located on the Black and Azov seas, the head of the horticulture and viticulture department Yevgeny Kritsky said temperatures that have dropped in some places to minus 31 Celsius have been accompanied strong winds. Kritsky said “as concerns apples and plums, it should be expected 10 to 30 percent of them will die off.” Kritsky said just as alarming for the region is the lack of snow, which has sparked fears more than just the fruit crop will be affected.
The chief agriculturalist of Rostov-on-Don region Igor Tatyanko said the lack of snow cover on the fields to act as insulation against frigid air and freezing winds means the autumn wheat in the area may be ruined. “As soon as the temperature goes up, we will take the wheat crops for accelerated cultivation to see if the fall crops have survived,” Tatyanko said. But Tatyanko added he feared it would be necessary to simply “plow up the fields and use them for the spring sowing.”
In Kalmykiya, where temperatures have ranged between minus 10 to 20 degrees Celsius (more than 20 degrees below normal), deputy Agriculture Minister Gennady Ragozin said “the trees aren’t damaged but the buds are frozen over and it looks like there won’t be a harvest at all.”
In Astrakhan, north of the Caspian Sea, officials say as much as 70 percent of fruit from orchards may be lost this year.
In Daghestan, an emergency situation has been declared for the fields and vineyards in the area around the provincial capital Makhachkala and 11 other districts due to the cold weather. Daghestani deputy Minister of Agriculture Bashir Baytemirov called it a “catastrophe” and said damage to the harvest would be measured in the billions of rubles.
Russian agricultural officials concede there will be substantial damage to this year’s crop of “pitted” or “flowering” fruits, mainly those that grow on trees or bushes. They assure that damage to fruits such as strawberries that grow low to the ground will be minimal and orchards in northern areas of Russia would not be affected since they grow in areas where temperatures of minus 30 or 35 are common in winter.
But for regions where the recent unusually low temperatures are having such a devastating effect, there was little comfort from weather forecasts. One example came from Yelena Nazarova, an employee of the meteorological bureau in Rostov-on-Don, who noted, “The abnormally cold weather is expected to last, the air temperature will remain 10 to 14 degrees below the norm.”
written by the central newsroom
Source Article from http://www.rferl.org/content/russia_crop_fruit_cold_environment/24481121.html
