farmers confused by climate change

Northern potato growers test their fields almost daily. Only, Monday, May 15, the planting conditions are, once again, not met. “You still need fairly fine soil around the plan for it to develop well“, explains Sébastien Ioos, a producer. For a month, the North has been recording record rains. As a result, the seed potatoes, waiting in large bags, are beginning to germinate.

A department on drought alert

The risk for these producers is to have plants weakened by this first germination, and therefore of lower quality. “If we put fewer plans per hectare, we will have less yield behind. […] We risk not having the tonnage per hectare”, regrets Vincent Ioos, a farmer. Producers are not the only ones affected. Cédric Wyaert, a cattle breeder, is forced to delay planting the corn that feeds his animals. However, the North is placed on drought alert, because the level of groundwater is at its lowest.