Russian Heatwave Threatens Grain Harvest

Under the sweltering sun, with temperatures rising to 50 degrees Celsius, farmers in the Rostov region, Russia's breadbasket, toil to salvage their harvest. This year has been particularly harsh, with the weather swinging from spring frosts to floods, and now, a heatwave.

Russia, the world's leading grain exporter, is officially forecasting a grain harvest of 132 million tonnes in 2024, down from a record 158 million tons in 2022 and 145 million tons last year. However, many analysts already consider this forecast overly optimistic and are revising it downward.

The farmers are now primarily focused on harvesting the winter wheat, which fared better through this year's weather extremities than the spring wheat. But frustration among farmers is spreading as they realize that this year's crop will fall short of their expectations.

Officials in Rostov were first to publicly admit that this year's harvest in the region will fall to 10 million tons, 38% lower than in the previous year.

The agricultural boom transformed the scenery in many southern regions like Rostov with cultivated fields dominating the landscape while improving the living standards for farmers and their workers. Now the weather extremities make farmers worried.

Sasunov said he hardly saw any rainfall in their area since March. The meager 1-3 millimeters of rain would quickly evaporate from the soil. His measurements show that temperatures at the surface were rising to 55 degrees Celsius.

Many farmers in the Rostov region are also pointing out to surprise frosts that killed developing sprouts in early winter as the main culprit.

Russia experienced a boom in its agriculture sector in the last decade, partly fuelled by counter measures taken in response to Western sanctions imposed after the annexation of Crimea in 2014, including a ban on food imports from the European Union.