After the drought: what awaits the agricultural sector in the South in a poor harvest year

The Director General of the Institute of Market Trends in the Agrarian Market, Dmitry Rylko, discusses the challenges southern regions are facing in one of the most difficult seasons in recent years. — The south of Russia and the North Caucasus traditionally remain key regions of the Russian agricultural complex. However, this season brought drought, torrential rains, and a cold snap in early summer. How do you assess the gross harvest of grain crops in key regions? — This year has been extremely difficult for the southern regions, except for the Stavropol Territory. We observed a rare combination of adverse factors: autumn and spring drought, return frosts, followed by a second wave of drought in the summer. All this affected wheat, barley, and late crops. However, the situation varies greatly by region. In the Stavropol Territory, the harvest turned out to be record-breaking even in the eastern districts, where drought usually hits hardest. But half of the Krasnodar Territory ...