Drought hurts agricultural cultures in Kosovo

According to Kosovo Hydrometeorological Institute data, temperatures in Kosovo have reached 38 degrees.

The director of the Department of Agricultural Policy at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development, Isuf Cikaqi, says high temperatures during July -- and this month -- have affected and hampered the development of agricultural cultures.

However, according to him, in some agricultural cultures that have completed the generation phase, there has been no negative impact at harvesttime.

We expect more of the agricultural cultures that are being cultivated and are not in the irrigation system. Those agricultural parcels that are being cultivated, which are under the irrigation system, whether from irrigation companies or from farmers in a personal way, will get better and the damage will be smaller”, Cikaqi says.

The impact of high temperatures in general, according to Agriculture expert Imer Rusinovac, reduces agricultural production, in particular spring cultures such as corn, cultures that need water during July and August.

“The drought is the number one enemy to reduce agricultural production, and this was partly manifested in wheat cultures, where the heat wave, which massed by 20 to 30 percent, reduced wheat production, a phenomenon manifested even in the final production of this” culture.

The “is one of the rare years that the lowest wheat producer, compared to the previous years”, Russia points out.

He adds that the low productivity of agricultural cultures will lead the country to depend on the large account of imports.

High temperatures and droughts, even according to the president of the Federation of Farmers of Kosovo, Tahir Tahiri, have caused major damage to wheat productivity.

And so far it's affected 60 percent of the productivity reduction. Only those parcels that had access to irrigation didn't suffer much. The lack of moisture in agricultural cultures, in addition to reducing productivity, also affects the quality of agricultural products”, Tahiri says.

The data on the damage caused by high temperatures and drought will become known early in September, says Isuf Cikaqi, and, according to him, will then be seen the partial possibility of compensation of farmers who have suffered from natural disasters.

Unfortunately, the budget-sharing heads for this matter -- natural disasters -- are 500 thousand euros, and we up to half of the summer have had reports from the municipal director for agriculture -- that the value of damage from natural disasters of all nature is 13 million euros”.

If we introduce the next reports to come, by the end of the year this amount will increase, but, you will see the possibilities for securing another”, Cikaqi points out.

The overall area in Kosovo is over 10,908 square km, while 53 per cent of the land is agricultural. Meanwhile, of 1.9 million people, 61 percent of them live in rural areas.