ReTV: Grain fields suffer due to prolonged wind and rain

After the prolonged wind and rains, winter wheat fields in Kurzeme and Zemgale have suffered, as have other agricultural crops, causing losses to their owners. Farmers are rushing to turn to insurers, as state support is not expected. Only good weather in the next two weeks will be able to save the situation and the harvest.

Applications for fields affected by veld are currently coming in to assessors in large numbers. For example, in Zemgale, 50-70% of cereals have been dumped in veld. At the “Jušķēni” farm in the Jelgava region, the sown area is almost 1,000 hectares, half of which are wheat fields, 70% of wheat has been affected by veld. “Crops are lying on the ground. The rain has been heavy. It got soaked together with the wind. The stalk of the cereal cannot hold the ear, everything is lying on the ground. They are ready for milk, they are soft, they need sunshine to ripen slowly, little by little. The trouble may be that they can sprout in the ear. The lying, standing ones can be more durable,” says Ints Kaufmanis, the owner of the “Jušķēni” farm.

If the grain sprouts in the ear, then the grain is no longer usable in the food industry. It will only be useful as animal feed at a low price. The farm “Arāji” in Dobele district manages an area of 1,400 hectares. Here, in some places, even 90% has been harvested from the field.

There are special mechanisms that can lift the grain, but not everything, and something will still remain on the field, farmers say. Wetter grains will have to be dried additionally, creating unnecessary expenses. Uldis Sprukts, head of the Rural Support Service, Zemgale Regional Agricultural Administration, says: “State support is not provided for the harvested crop, but there is a solution, which is also used by many farmers – to insure their crops. In Zemgale, many did this. Now, reporting losses to insurers has already begun.”

Elvis Lazdiņš, agronomist at the Lazdiņi farm and an independent loss assessment expert, says: “The amount is 15% of the value of a hectare determined by the owner, if it is 1,000 euros, then 15% is 150 euros. The owner receives compensation for each hectare that has fallen into the veld.”

Insurers indicate that applications from farmers are still coming in, so specific calculations cannot be given. Insurers are currently filming the fields with a drone and trying to calculate the losses to be compensated to farms. The Farmers' Council indicates that in Zemgale there are around 70% of crops in the veld, in Kurzeme around 30%, and up to 10% in Latgale and Vidzeme.