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Rapeseed: Precipitation favors some regions

May 25, 2018 at 2:12 PM , Starry Night Ltd.
Flowering amidst the season of hailstorms.
Flowering amidst the season of hailstorms.
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SOFIA. So far in the season, hailstorms’ impacts have been confined locally. In fields, precipitation has refilled moisture reserves.

Rapeseed: Faring well amidst the season of hailstorms

BULGARIA. Before harvests unfold throughout the different regions, besides the lack of moisture in the soil, fields are threatened by hailstorms. During the month of May, weather conditions are quite predisposed to hailstorms, which have already hit places throughout the country. Within the Northeast region of the country – the region where usually the highest quantities of rapeseed are collected on an annual basis – hailstorms ravaged some fields. In fields within the central North, hailstorms impacted larger areas, according to farmers.

       Harvest 2017-18

(01.07.2017 – 18.05.2018)

           units in MT

Beginning availability

25,000

Aggregate output

478,987

Imports

32,655

Domestic consumption

68,800

   oil & biodiesel production

68,800

Exports to the world

433,461

   to EU markets

394,965

   to rest of the world

38,496

Source: Bulgarian Ministry of Agriculture

Nationwide, the impact of hailstorms so far has been limited to specific areas since it has been hailstorm clouds and not a full sky that brought the natural disaster; as the larger the frozen balls, the higher the damages within places. Yet, before harvest begins and the crops are collected from fields much could change for better or for worse. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, by the 10th of May 2018, only 540 ha of sowed land (185,753 ha) with rapeseed have been registered as fallen-through. By the time harvest 2018-19 begins, the number will most probably increase.

Precipitation favors some regions

Although in places, farmers still pray for rain, in some regions, rains of agricultural significance fell and filled in the necessary moisture reserves. Showers in the amount of 40-50 l/sq.m. replenished reserves in the lower layers of the soil in the places within the Northwest and central South, among other regions. The forecasted rains till the end of the month will maintain the moisture levels in some fields throughout the country. Right now, the so necessary precipitation will produce a beneficial effect on local crops, which are in the phase of seed formation and/or reaching full development of their grains.

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