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23.06.2010 12:11 "Agro Perspectiva" (Kyiv) —
The Czech Republic and Slovakia have added a further $135m to the estimate of Europes losses to the floods which in Poland killed 20 people and cost 1.5m tonnes of grain.
One-in-seven farms in Slovokia was damaged by the flooding which followed heavy rains in May and June, with nearly 300,000 hectares of cropland affected.
Grains were particularly seriously affected, with losses of 59,000 hectares of wheat, while many farmers also lost buildings and machinery to the deluge.
In the neighbouring Czech Republic, flooding has widened to 1015% the decline expected in the grains harvest this year, despite the survival of 90% of winter crops.
«Spring crops suffered from the cold and rainy weather that followed sowing,» US Department of Agriculture officials in Prague said.
"Some vegetables couldnt be sown because of floods or soil was too wet and didnt allow machinery to enter the fields.
«The same reason has caused also insufficient fertilizing and spraying of crops which will lead, along with increased humidity, to larger fungi infections and other diseases. Yields of spring grains, mainly malting barley, are expected to stay below average.»However, overall a far smaller proportion of Czech farms were hit than in Slovakia, and the country is still expected to be able to export some 1.5m-1.7m tonnes of grains.
The rapeseed harvest is expected to come in at 1.1m tonnes, not far below last years, despite weather losses.
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