A Farmer vs. Drought Myths: Why Fields Aren't to Blame for Czechia's Climate Problems

A Czech farmer and columnist for the Ekolist.cz portal has sharply criticized a widespread media narrative claiming that drought in the country is being worsened by farmers and their "large fields," which supposedly retain water poorly. According to him, the real culprits behind moisture loss are roads, roofs and built-up areas — not agriculture.

The author offers a calculation: if you add up all the artificial surface area in Czechia, the runoff from it over the course of a year could fill the country's largest reservoir, Orlík, one and a half times over — roughly a billion cubic meters of water. For comparison, Prague Airport alone handles nearly 2 million passengers a month, and up to 80,000 flights pass over the country's territory every month — yet it's farmers who get blamed for climate warming.

Where the water actually goes

According to the author, Czech land — whether fields or forests — absorbs more than 99% of precipitation. River statistics show that water levels in watercourses have been declining even though average long-term precipitation has remained roughly stable. However, the media picture is distorted by footage of sudden floods caused by localized downpours exceeding 50 mm, in which case the soil simply doesn't have time to absorb the moisture.

The author makes another point: if farmland really did shed significant amounts of water, rivers would stay high for a long time after rain. In reality, water levels in watercourses rise only briefly — for 2-3 hours — before receding, which points to runoff coming mainly from roads and roofs, not fields. Even assuming that just 1% of annual rainfall (5 mm) runs off from 10% of farmland, that alone would be enough to fill the Seč Dam — about 21 million cubic meters of water. Yet this isn't happening; on the contrary, ponds and reservoirs have struggled to fill up in recent years.

Land drainage, forests and activist misconceptions

The author separately explains the role of drainage systems: on thin, stony soils they replace natural springs and only divert water when there's a surplus, while during droughts and normal weather they simply don't operate. Based on his observations, over roughly the past 15 years, springs and forest streams in the Central Bohemian Region that used to flow year-round are now dry most of the time.

He argues that the very idea of "fighting" drought or nature is pointless — in his view, the only sensible path is adaptation. He criticizes biomethane plants that haul organic matter and farm waste off fields — material that used to be returned to the soil — as well as the burning of biomass at heating plants, which strips forests of nutrients. He also takes aim at so-called "greening" — mandatory sowing of grass mixtures supposedly meant to retain water — and "agroforestry," the planting of trees in fields, which, in his observation, merely compete with crops for moisture.

What the author proposes

In his view, instead of indiscriminately planting millions of trees, the species composition of forests should be changed to varieties adapted to heat — for example, from the Balkans or the Caucasus, which are capable of slowing growth and evaporation during hot weather. He also insists on building new deep reservoirs in the mountains and foothills capable of holding water for longer than a single season, unlike the currently fashionable small ponds and backwaters that only produce a local effect over an area of 1-5 hectares.

The author points out that plans for large reservoirs first emerged back in the first half of the last century, following a series of catastrophic droughts and floods, and were largely carried out during the socialist era — a system that, he says, is still what saves the country from acute water shortages today.

Around Prague, based on reporting by ekolist.cz