Paises Bajos: Rainiest April since 1932 last month; Major issues for crop farmers

Most crops are sown in April. Onions, potatoes, and sugar beets should all be planted, but the ground is simply too wet. “It’s worse than last year,” farmer Lars Horsten, who farms exactly those crops in Alphen, Noord-Brabant, told the Telegraaf. “It has rained almost every day for the past six months, with all its consequences. We normally start applying fertilizer, but the wet soil does not have the carrying capacity.”

“Another seven weeks until the longest day, then all the crops we sowed should have covered the field with their leaves. Time is running out for onions, because you can show them until mid-May at the latest. It is stressful, this spring,” Horsten said

According to Wageningen researcher Wijnand Sukkel, later sowing times also mean later harvesting. “And you have a greater risk of poor conditions. Then there is no time left to sow green manures, which are necessary to absorb the nitrogen that remains in the soil after potato cultivation. That means more nitrogen leaching into the groundwater,” Sukkels aid.

Such unfavorable conditions will become increasingly common due to climate change, Sukkel said. “Farmers will have to anticipate that the winter will be wetter and that if you want to harvest late, you will run into problems more often.”