Authorities in the southern regions have begun to worry about the impact of the drought on crops. According to Kommersant, the Ministry of Agriculture of the Stavropol Territory plans to attract agricultural producers to finance artificial precipitation in the region. This should prevent the death of grain crops due to drought, says the letter of the Deputy Minister of the Ministry Vyacheslav Dridiger to the heads of the profile departments of municipalities. Kommersant has a copy of the appeal. It is planned to use aircraft of the Central Aerological Observatory of Roshydromet to spray reagents in the clouds. For 30-40 days and 150 flights in May-June, about 90 million rubles will be required, the letter says. The amount is proposed to be distributed among the companies that agreed to participate in the project, in proportion to the area under crops.
As stated on the site of Roshydromet, the technology allows you to increase the amount of precipitation by 15-30% compared with seasonal indicators. The Ministry of Agriculture of the region confirmed that the issue is being worked out. In Roshydromet, Kommersant did not answer.
Agroholding Steppe (part of AFK Sistema Vladimir Yevtushenkov) is ready to participate in the project to artificially precipitate rainfall both in the Stavropol Territory and in other regions, its CEO Andrei Nekhudko said. But, according to him, the company first plans to conduct an economic analysis and study the results of experiments in this area in the 2020 season.
A Kommersant source, a large grain producer, believes that such a project should be financed only by the state, which receives taxes from companies. “The issue cannot be resolved by another cooperative; it will be cheaper to call a shaman,” he says ironically.
The problem with drought in the south of Russia really exists, Sovekon director Andrei Sizov points out: dry winters with minimal rainfall gave way to the same March. April precipitation is also not enough: with an average monthly volume of 40–50 mm, an average of about 10 mm has fallen so far, says Mr. Sizov. According to him, if rains do not come to the south of Russia in the coming months, then part of the potential crop will be lost. There are problems with precipitation not only in the Stavropol Territory.
According to Sovecon, in April the Krasnodar Territory received only 8% of the monthly rainfall, the Rostov Region - 36%.
The ministries of agriculture of these regions did not answer questions.
The Director General of the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR) Dmitry Rylko confirms that in the south there was an extremely low rainfall all March and April. IKAR has already lowered its crop forecast from 79,5 million to 77,2 million tons of wheat. According to Mr. Rylko, in the Blagodarnensky district of the Stavropol Territory, the process of cancellation of fields has already begun - this is when harvesting on the site is pointless and the farm gains the right to claim compensation for losses from a natural disaster.
But experts doubt the effectiveness of the measures proposed in the Stavropol Territory. According to Andrei Sizov, rain can only be caused if there are rain clouds, but there are none in the south of Russia. Dmitry Rylko adds that artificial precipitation using road planes, and its effectiveness may be low in conditions of low humidity.
Meanwhile, dry weather in southern Russia has become one of the factors behind wheat prices in the EU.
According to Sovecon, during the week quotes reached € 206 per tonne - this is the highest level since January 2019. But drought has not yet affected the cost of Russian grain. According to the head of the Rusagrotrans analytical center Igor Pavensky, wheat prices from Russia returned to the level of the previous week - $ 230–231 per ton, and exporters are busy with the execution of already concluded contracts.