farmers in Germany have already been around the help of 8,000 applications for Drought. Half of them attributable to lower Saxony, told the German farmers ‘ Association. Due to the exceptional drought this summer, the farmers had retracted significantly poorer Harvests than in the previous years, in the case of cereals, about a quarter less. The Federal government therefore supports emergency funding to the provinces: a Total of 340 million euros available to help companies in distress.
In some States, the Application have not been completed by the time limits or extended. “Despite the high hurdles, so many applications are made, shows that the help is necessary,” says the President of the German farmers ‘ Association, Joachim Rukwied. In the long term, further bailouts are no solution: “We need to strengthen the risk management of holdings.”
Numbers for specific economic damage of the drought for the farmers, are not yet available. The farmers ‘ Association has now published the results for the financial year 2017/18, the end of June. Until then, the farmers were able to increase their profit compared to the previous year by a fifth to of 65,200 euros per operation. “In spite of the frost damage in the past year, the company’s results are stable,” said Rukwied. “This is encouraging, but we look with concern on the current marketing year, if the increase in costs and, above all, the drought hit to beech.”
Depending on the product, the results diverged, however: dairy farms were able to increase their profit per worker significantly, organic farming is slightly more profitable than the previous year. The gains were, however, in Establishments that keep animals. This is likely to be due to low prices for pigs and cattle on the one hand, and higher costs for energy, fertilizer, and feed on the other. In the realms of Agriculture and viticulture, the gains remained stable.
With investment held back by the farmers, rather, they invested only three percent more than in the previous year. The basis of the calculation 11.900 accounting statements of agricultural is the Main activity.