agriculture
Farmers react to dryness: more irrigation and soy
German agriculture reacts to the increasingly dry summer. The farmers rely on efficient irrigation of their fields and on a heat -resistant crop.
In response to drought and drought, farmers in Germany are increasingly soy. The acreage has grown by almost 157 percent since 2016 to last year, as the Federal Statistical Office reports. 2024 built 4,500 companies on a total of 40,500 hectares of soybeans. In the record year 2022 there were even 51,500 hectares.
Compared to wheat, however, the acreage remains small: it was planted at around 2.6 million hectares last year. Soy is a drought -resistant and can be processed into oil and feed.
Furthermore, the farms have expanded the areas that they can irrigate in the event of failure. From 2009 to 2022, these areas increased by almost a quarter (23.9 percent). Nevertheless, in 2022 with 791,800 hectares, not even a twenthest (4.8 percent) of the agricultural open space was irrigated. With 5,700 companies, an increasing number used the efficient and resource -saving dropping of drops. 11,900 companies rose their fields.
dpa
Source: Stern
