Russia: Abnormal heat in Tula can eliminate potato yield
Executive director of Farmers’ Association in Tula, Vyacheslav Andrianov, has explained how the heat affects the farmers:
Generally speaking, the heat does not have a negative effect on grain harvesting, as hot and dry weather is favourable for natural grain drying. However, it does have an adverse effect on vegetables. Potatoes in particular, are at threat, and it worries us a lot for two reasons – first, there was a rainy period that spread the potato blight; and now there is a draught – the complete drying of the tops stops the development of the plant. If it does not rain any time soon, we doubt any potato yield at all, regardless of the fact that at seeding the weather conditions were reasonably good.