Moisture and Drying Characterize East Europe Crops

May 2, 2002

Eastern European temperatures that have been above average since mid-January, according to USDA, with the two-week exception of a cool air intrusion in late March and early April. Possibly damaging cold during late winter, when there was no protective snow cover, never materialized. Currently, moisture conditions in the region are largely split along an east-west axis, with the best conditions existing north of Hungary.

A surplus of rainfall exists in Poland, the Czech Republic, and much of Slovakia. Further south, Croatia has also enjoyed abundant precipitation due to the beneficial track of storms that left areas further east dry. While western Romania and Vojvodina (northern Serbia) received substantial autumn rainfall and additional winter precipitation, which has provided adequate moisture for winter grains, the area has recently seen some worrisome short-term dryness.

Winter moisture reserves should be adequate for current winter grain needs but if the dryness continues, problems can develop, particularly for the important summer crops of corn, sunflower and soybeans. The spring dryness problem is magnified in Hungary because of a lack of winter precipitation. This situation has been developing for a while and could quickly become serious if significant rainfall doesn't occur soon in Hungary.

The large growing areas around the Black Sea and the Danube River in southern Romania and northern Bulgaria have shown some short-term gains with the arrival of precipitation (mostly in Bulgaria). Still, soil moisture in this area remains far below average, following a dry winter and a severe summer drought that occurred last year. That drought devastated summer crops in Dobruja and Dobrich, in far eastern Romania and Bulgaria.

A lack of rain has been a persistent problem for the Black Sea coast and the Danube River Valley areas of southern Romania and northern Bulgaria in the last couple years. It has only been made worse along the Black Sea in the last ten years because its once considerable irrigation systems have been torn up, stolen, and sold as scrap or left to decay, leaving virtually no functioning irrigation schemes.