In late August, Poland’s Minister of Agriculture Marek Sawicki described this year’s grain harvest as the most difficult in 50 years. This was after heavy rains in July blighted many farmers’ yields and lowered the quality of the grain for many others.

Mr Sawicki said some of Poland’s farmland looked more like rice fields than those for growing wheat, as adverse conditions delayed until August a harvest which would normally begin in July.

“This is one of the most difficult harvests for Polish producers of cereals, due to difficult weather conditions prior to and during the harvest season,” The Polish Federation of Crop Producers (KFPZ), said in a statement.

Heavy rains have also affected fruit production, especially in Poland’s northwest. There, losses on some plantations reached close to 100 percent, with the Wielkopolskie voivodship being particularly affected, experts at Poland’s Agricultural Market Agency (ARR) told WBJ.

With the summer grain harvest now practically completed, Poland’s statistical office (GUS) estimates this year’s harvest of basic cereals should reach 24.3-25.2 million tonnes, about 1-5 percent lower than last year.

Impact

“Currently there is no data that would realistically assess the financial impact of this year’s adverse weather conditions for Polish farmers,” admitted the ARR’s experts.

While grains suffered from the heavy rains, the apple harvest is expected to benefit Shutterstock

This will help to maintain domestic grain prices at a relatively high level for 2011 and 2012, says the ARR. But that, in turn, will have a negative impact on pork and poultry production, for which profitability levels will be low, the agency predicted.

Ms Leśniewska agreed that it is difficult to tell what long- term financial impact this harvest will have. “But certainly some farmers will have less income due to lower yields and poorer grain quality. And this will probably translate into less investment next season,” she said.

In August, the Council of Ministers passed a resolution on establishing a program of assistance for farmers whose agricultural production has been affected by adverse weather conditions in 2011. The program will include preferential loans, with a rate of 0.1 percent interest, to help with the resumption of production, social assistance to families in the form of a zł.5,000 allowance to individual farms and the deferred payment of insurance premiums.

On the bright side

Speaking earlier this month at the Harvest Festival in Jasna Góra, Polish President Bronisław Komorowski acknowledged that many farmers were experiencing particularly difficult times, especially regarding the value obtained yields.

However, the weather is never perfect and Polish farmers often have to cope with drought or overabundant rainfall, he added. And yet, despite yearly hardship, Polish agriculture is performing well, he said.

“Polish farmers have contributed to the fact that our country went through a relatively mild economic crisis,” said Mr Komorowski.

“Remember that until recently we were the only green island on the map of Europe, an island of economic development, surrounded by the threat of crisis. Poland was a green island, as green as the Polish countryside and Polish agriculture,” he added.

On the bright side, heavy rains have not been negative for all types of crops. Indeed, the temperatures that proved destructive for grains are believed to have boosted vegetable production.

“The July rainfall and high temperatures very favorably influenced the yield of most vegetable species, especially root vegetables, cabbage and cucumbers,” said the ARR experts. Indeed GUS expects that this year’s harvest will be slightly higher for all major types of vegetables. GUS also estimates the year’s overall fruit harvest will be higher than in 2010, especially in the case of apples.