Feature: Türkiye’s summer wheat harvest hampered by severe drought

Halim Orta, a wheat farmer in the Thrace region, one of the granaries of Türkiye, had high hopes for the summer harvest when he sowed seeds in October last year.

But the yield fell far short of expectations due to the severe drought that had badly affected agriculture throughout Türkiye.

“The average wheat crop this year in my field dipped by about 20 percent due to uneven rainfall and dry season in general,” Orta told Xinhua.

Farmers planted wheat on nearly 4.5 million hectares of land in the region, mainly in Edirne, Kirklareli and Tekirdag provinces, to meet around 15 percent of domestic wheat needs.

“The lack of precipitation, water stress, and agricultural drought suppressed the germination, emergence, and tillering of wheat crops,” Orta explained.

Cemal Polat, head of the Chamber of Agricultural Engineers Tekirdag branch, confirmed that there were massive challenges in this year’s wheat harvest.

“The irregularity of the precipitation regime has reduced the average yield this season to around 400 kilograms per hectare, compared to last year’s average of 550 kilograms,” Polat said.

“If we had adequate rainfall, the yield could have been above 600 to 700 kilograms this year,” he noted.

The whole region was known to be rainy most of the year and snowy in winter. However, the Mediterranean climate has been prevalent in the area over the past several years due to global warming, Polat said, adding that the agricultural product category should be adapted to the new normal weather conditions.

“The traditional agricultural products planted in our region are sunflower, wheat and canola,” he said, suggesting that drought-resistant product varieties be planted more in this region.”

Polat pointed out that the region is also facing drinking water shortages this year while population and industrial activities have been on the rise. He warned that such a decline in wheat yield would haunt the area more often if authorities do not conduct production and climate studies, nor come up with effective solutions to cope with the changes.

Polat believes this year’s bleak harvest would definitely increase Türkiye’s import of wheat-based products.

Tags: summer harvest, rainfall, wheat, drought, crop, yield, precipitation, Türkiye