Drought Costs Austrian Farmers Nearly a Billion Euros

This year's drought has cost Austrian agriculture roughly one billion euros in damages, according to an insurance company that monitors the country's farming sector. The entire territory of Austria was affected, with nearly every type of crop suffering losses.

Pastures were hit hardest, while among field crops, corn, potatoes, sugar beets, pumpkins and soybeans took the biggest blows. In some regions, grain crops also suffered significant damage. According to the insurer, only 80% of arable land and 40% of pastures in the country are covered by drought insurance, meaning farmers' actual losses could far exceed the amounts being compensated.

Climate Change Is Making Droughts More Dangerous

Scientists from the international research group World Weather Attribution say this year's European drought was intensified specifically by climate change. Rainfall levels haven't dropped significantly, but rising temperatures are dramatically increasing moisture evaporation from soil, vegetation and bodies of water, turning an ordinary rain shortage into a serious crisis.

According to the analysis, the soil moisture deficit driving agricultural drought in Western Europe today is roughly five times more likely to occur than it would have been in the pre-industrial climate, which was 1.4 degrees Celsius cooler than today. In Eastern Europe, where rainfall has been below normal for six months straight, the likelihood of such a drought has surged 11-fold. Scientists stress that the main culprit is the heat itself, not a lack of rain per se.

Record Heat and Crop Losses Across Europe

Experts note that a similar rainfall deficit decades ago would have caused only moderate drought conditions, but intensified evaporation is now making the consequences far more severe. France, for instance, reported its worst corn harvest in 50 years, while Romania has lost over a million hectares of crops to repeated droughts since 2019.

Heatwaves swept across Europe back in June, when an all-time temperature record was set in Czechia — on June 28, thermometers in Doksany, in the Litoměřice district, hit 41.9 degrees Celsius. This broke the previous nationwide record of 40.4 degrees, set on August 20, 2012, in Dobřichovice near Prague.

Read also: 8 best swimming spots near Prague: lakes, quarries and beaches within an hour's drive of the capital

Around Prague, based on reporting by ekolist.cz