The potato harvest in Great Britain and Ireland threatens to turn out to be a disaster. The harvest is extremely difficult due to rain and poor water management, which means that many hectares have still not been cleared. This threatens to rot the potatoes on the British and Irish islands.
Minette Batters, president of the National Farmers Union (NFU), warns about this. According to Batters, around half of the British acreage is still in the ground, although previous estimates show that around 30% of the potatoes were still in the ground. In Ireland, according to several messages on social media, only 40% of the potato harvest has been harvested.
floods
The weather forecast for the British and Irish islands is also not very positive, weatherman Robert de Vries said earlier his weather forecast Boerenbusiness. According to Batters, many potato plots along rivers in particular cannot be harvested. Due to the heavy rain, many plots of land have overflowed their banks, resulting in flooding.
This was particularly the case in the British region of Somerset. The president of NFU chimes in The Telegraph therefore a call on the government to make more room for rivers, in order to better cope with flooding. Farmers could, among other things, be paid for storing water on their plots.
Shortage looms
If the potatoes can no longer be harvested, there is a risk of a shortage in Great Britain in the long term, according to Batters. In addition, many arable farmers are having difficulty entering the new harvest year of 2020 because winter crops cannot be sown at this time.
Hard work harvesting potatoes at Ivan Currans Farm in Meath today. Underfoot conditions not ideal. Only about 40% of the National potato harvest has been completed. And time running out. #ettg pic.twitter.com/IZvWzRFoWy
— Paula Williams (@paulawilliamss) November 12, 2019