North Rhine-Westphalia: Dry summer means poor potato harvest

Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) - The dry, hot summer brought the farmers in North Rhine-Westphalia a comparatively poor potato harvest this year.

North Rhine-Westphalia: Dry summer means poor potato harvest

Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) - The dry, hot summer brought the farmers in North Rhine-Westphalia a comparatively poor potato harvest this year. Because potatoes are growing in more and more fields at the same time, the bottom line is that the harvest is the third largest in recent years, as the State Statistical Office announced on Tuesday.

1.8 million tons of potatoes were harvested this year. That is 6.2 percent less than in the previous year. Farmers even harvested 10.4 percent less per hectare of cultivated area than in 2021.

The statisticians see a general trend towards potatoes in the West. The authority said the area under cultivation was 11.3 percent higher this year than the average for the past six years.

Some farmers had artificially irrigated their potato fields this summer because of the drought. The lack of rain in summer became a problem, especially for crops such as potatoes, corn and sugar beet, which are only harvested in autumn.