Irrigation ban and heat plague southern neighbors

Despite the cooler weather and local rain showers in the Netherlands, the situation elsewhere in Europe is different. For example, it is persistently warm in France. An irrigation ban has now been announced in Southwest Flanders. 

This irrigation ban is for an indefinite period. It concerns the Yser Basin area, which includes 27 municipalities. Roughly speaking, this is the area southwest of the cities of Ostend and Ypres. 

Due to drought and high temperatures, a lot of water has been withdrawn from the area recently, reports felt.be† This is now endangering water quality. In order to limit the consequences for arable farmers, alternative sources are being opened up, such as water basins.

France
Further south, in France, it has remained warm and dry. Even now it is around 30 degrees in large parts of the country. The average temperature in the period June 26 to July 8 was 37,9 degrees. The forecast for the coming week does show cooler weather and more precipitation for France.  

Drought still plays a serious role in our eastern neighbours, however. This is apparent from the tweet below from weatherman Robert de Vries, who is also on here Boerenbusiness regularly presents a weather update.

Less rainfall expected
Expectations for the next two weeks are that France, southern Germany, and large parts of Poland will receive only 40-70% of normal rainfall. A little more rain is expected in northern Germany. Except in France, it gets a bit cooler on average in these areas. 

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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