Does the new season start with a major water shortage?

While it is currently raining, water managers in the Netherlands report a major water shortage in the soil. If there is no wet winter, the new season will start with a major water shortage.

The groundwater shortage is still enormous; even now that there is quite a few millimeters of precipitation. According to an research According to the Netherlands Hydrological Instrumentarium, the groundwater level (in a normal winter) will be several decimeters to 1 meter lower than normal at the start of the next growing season.

Low groundwater level 
Even with a wet winter, part of the Netherlands (mainly sandy soil) will have a lower groundwater level at the start of the new season. Even in the event of an extremely wet winter, it will still take months before the precipitation deficit is restored.

"A logical conclusion is that the risk of water shortages will be higher than average in 2019. A dry winter will again have major consequences, especially in the south and east of the country," reports the agency. A major water shortage (with a short drought period) quickly has an impact on the crops.

New growing season
"We need about 200 days of precipitation (Dutch amounts) to make up for the shortage. That is more than 6 months and that is a lot. If you look at the figures honestly, we will not make it for the new growing season," reports Dijkgraaf Tanja Klip (Valley and Veluwe Water Board) at the OUR.

Whether we get a wet, cold or dry winter is a matter of coffee grounds. From the statistics of Weatheronline turns out that there is often a mild winter when autumn is beautiful. There is no doubt that autumn is beautiful: autumn has not been this dry in 43 years. In addition, the temperature is now on average 1 degree Celsius higher than normal and it was the sunniest autumn ever recorded.

Arable farmers anticipate
Many arable farmers are already anticipating the 2018 drought more winter onion sets planted and more winter seed onions sown. Arable farmers indicate that they want to start sowing new crops as early as possible. The ongoing drought is already having negative consequences elsewhere in Europe for, among other things, the wheat crops.

Anne-Jan Doorn

Anne Jan Doorn is an arable expert at Boerenbusiness. He writes about the various arable farming markets and also focuses on the land and energy market.

aj.doorn@boerenbusiness. Nl

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