Northern Europe’s farmers struggle to weather extreme drought

Authorities take exceptional measures in Nordic and Baltic countries.

Farmers on Europe’s northern edges have so far spent the summer staring at the sky, praying for rain.

One of the worst droughts in recent memory has taken countries along the Baltic Sea by surprise, with places like Sweden issuing alerts for “extremely high temperatures” above 30 degrees Celsius, and where groundwater levels in some areas are at their lowest point on record.

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Lithuania has declared a state of emergency. The Danish government is pushing through legislation to ease standards for organic farmers so that they don’t have to feed their livestock as much grass — which is scarce.

“This is the most severe drought we’ve had in 50 or 60 years,” said Niels Lindberg Madsen, head of EU policy at the Danish Agriculture and Food Council. “Yields are very low simply because there has been no rain, generally speaking, for a couple of months.”

Swedish grain and cereal growers have had to start harvesting their first cut of crops for the season three to four weeks earlier than usual, according to Palle Borgström, president of the Federation of Swedish Farmers. Some have witnessed their production decrease by as much as 50 percent compared to the average.

One of the farmers’ main problems is that they haven’t been able to grow enough grass or crops typically used to graze their livestock. They’ve turned to land normally set aside for crop rotation and environmental protection to feed cattle. Farmers could also buy forage for their animals, but this is much more expensive and would have to be imported from other countries due to the lack of supply in the drought-hit Baltic region. Borgström said that ultimately farmers “will need to make tough decisions” and kill more animals than usual, which will drive down the price for meat and hurt their bottom line.

“Farmers are now taking care of every straw of grass that is available,” said Borgström. “They are even using their winter stores to feed their animals. In the autumn, we will face a situation where we need to slaughter a lot more cattle than what we normally do because there is simply no feed.”

Unprepared for extreme weather conditions, countries have asked the European Commission for help. In response, the Commission decided Monday to temporarily exempt eight countries — Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Portugal — from an EU environmental requirement aimed at promoting biodiversity, which obliges farmers to leave part of their land fallow. With this exemption, farmers will be able to use more of their land to grow sources of food for animals.

“The Commission is closely monitoring the exceptional situation,” a Commission official said in an email. “The Commission is in contact with several Member States and examining all possibilities for support.”

But farmers’ groups say the exemption isn’t enough. Sweden requested that the EU also provide crisis funding, but representatives of the farming sector say they were told this isn’t likely to happen.

“I don’t think a quick reaction is a major competence for the Commission,” said Borgström. “Every euro counts in a situation like this, but there won’t be any significant support from the EU crisis fund. Even if we do get some money, it will probably not hit the farmers until next year and the farmers need financial support, liquidity and cash flow now, not next year.”

Sweden is now considering its own national aid scheme for farmers.

“For now, the biggest concern is to make sure that our farmers with livestock have enough forage for their animals the coming fall and winter,” said Daniel Ferreira, a spokesperson for the Swedish government.

The Commission did not respond to a question about whether it would provide additional funding.

“It’s very positive that we had a quick decision to be able to harvest the fallow land,” said Borgström, “but it’s just a drop in the ocean for what’s needed.”