Grain producers in Bulgaria expect a poor harvest

Grain producers in Bulgaria are expecting a poor harvest this year, it is likely to be the worst in the last decade, the reason being the abysmal climatic conditions – very high temperatures and lack of rainfall.

Farmers are pondering whether to harvest spring crops, as the campaign will entail additional costs.

Zvezdelin Surev cultivates 2,000 hectares of land in the lands of Zlatarica and Rodina village. This year he planted 550 hectares of sunflowers and 700 hectares of corn. He expects a very weak and poor quality crop due to the long drought.

“Sunflowers from the heat – the lower leaves start to dry and it’s all over. The warm wind that blows over the plants helps them finish even faster. The seeds can’t fill up, they fill up and they’ll stay! They will stay! The yield will be very small, up to 100 kilograms,” he commented.

It turns out that it is not only on the Pre-Balkan Peninsula in the Zlatarica area that the scorching drought is stopping the development of corn and sunflowers.

“There hasn’t been a drop of rain for over a month, things are deplorable, the corn is completely gone. From the heat it starts to vomit, and there is no ear. The cob comes out small, tiny, the kernels Everywhere on the forums we see pictures and colleagues everywhere complain – both in Northern Bulgaria and in Southern Bulgaria… The sunflower just filled the pita, the seed remains empty, the leaves are burning… It’s coming. In many places in the country, very few places I see produce that will be of good quality and with good yields,” commented Pencho Chanev, who owns an agricultural company in Zlataritsa.

Grain producers have already spent a considerable amount of money on this year’s harvest. In addition to the expectation of low yields, they are also under pressure from low purchase prices. Sunflower is trading at 66 cents “on the green”.

“We have plowing, disking, seeding, pre-seeding fertilization, post-seeding fertilization, herbicide spraying, foliar fertilizer spraying and so on. And the products we produce are too cheap, and in the second or third year we go backwards! If you count under a hundred kilograms per hectare and if you count realistically – perhaps it is undesirable to harvest, because the harvest will entail additional costs,” says Zvezdelin Surev.

“On the other hand, the costs are many times higher than the income, which I am not sure if we can expect… We are almost all on credit, and with the current state of affairs it is expected that banks will become one of the largest agricultural producers in the next 1-2 years,” comments Pencho Chanev.

Farmers say that in recent years the climate in our country has been constantly changing and drying out. And there has not been such a prolonged heat wave as this summer for 40 years.