The president of Asaja Córdoba, Fernando Adell, announced this Friday the start of the cereal harvest in the province, in a campaign "marked by very different weather conditions from recent years, but whose results are not as positive as one might expect, after a pluviometric year above average".
As Adell details in a statement, the intense winter and spring rainfall "has caused great heterogeneity between farms, with plots showing acceptable results, alongside others with clearly lower yields" and, overall, "the harvest presents medium-low productions, far from the expectations that had been generated after the accumulated rainfall".
The agricultural official emphasizes that "the meteorological year --he continued-- has not allowed the crops to develop normally, as on many occasions it has not been possible to access the plots to carry out treatments against pests and diseases, nor to apply fertilizers at the most appropriate times".
The continuous rains have also generated "a high incidence of fungal diseases and weeds, forcing repeated treatments on numerous occasions, especially fungicides, up to two applications", along with "significant delays in the application of top dressing fertilizers and phytosanitary treatments, negatively impacting the final development of the crops".
As a result, yields "are once again at levels similar to those of previous campaigns, despite it being a year with significantly higher rainfall than the provincial average".
SITUATION BY VARIETIES
In the analysis by crop, the president of Asaja Córdoba highlights that "soft wheats show a better general condition than durum wheats and barleys. However, productions are lower than in the past campaign and, furthermore, the presence of the wheat midge (Mayetiola destructor) has been registered again", a pest that continues to affect cereal producers in Córdoba.
Estimates indicate "average yields in soft wheat of around 3,500 kilograms per hectare, while durum wheats will barely reach an average of 2,800 kilograms per hectare". Regarding quality, the agricultural organization anticipates "a very uneven campaign, reflecting the variability observed in the different producing areas and farms".
LEGUMES
Regarding legumes, the campaign is also characterized by "important contrasts, depending on species and cultivation areas", since "persistent rains made sowing difficult for a large part of the campaign, significantly reducing the planted area".
Thus, "many plots could not be sown and, in those that were established, problems with germination and diseases have caused a notable reduction in production, especially in peas and broad beans". On the other hand, spring chickpeas "show a more favorable evolution and have presented satisfactory vegetative development so far".
PRICES AND COSTS
On the other hand, Asaja Córdoba recalls that cereal profitability "remains one of the main concerns of farmers", given that "production costs have increased notably in recent decades, while the prices received by producers have not evolved at the same rate".
As a reference, the employers' association indicates that "in 1990, soft wheat was quoted at 25.60 pesetas per kilogram, which is equivalent to 153.86 euros per ton. However, if this amount is updated according to the accumulated inflation recorded in Spain since then, close to 155%, according to official data from the Consumer Price Index (CPI), that price would currently be equivalent to about 392 euros per ton".
This parallelism highlights "the loss of purchasing power and profitability that cereal farmers have suffered in recent decades, especially in a context marked by the increase in the costs of seeds, fertilizers, plant protection products, fuel, machinery, and labor".
Faced with this scenario, the organization calls for "measures that guarantee fair prices for producers, in line with the evolution of costs and the effort made by farmers to maintain cereal production in the province of Córdoba".
At the same time, and facing "the growing pressure from pests and diseases", the president of Asaja Córdoba urges administrations to "allow farmers to carry out the necessary agricultural work at the opportune moment", reiterating the request to "let farmers till in time, to try to sanitize the soils of all the pests and diseases that the crops are suffering from and that are increasingly aggressive, thus contributing to improving plant health and the sustainability of the province's agricultural holdings".