Due to the rainy summer in Estonia, vegetable and potato growers in the country’s south-east have been struggling to maintain their fields. Many have become saturated and crops grown in lower areas have withered due to excessive rain water.
On Ilumäe Farm in the village of Navi, Võru County, on the cabbage fields are swamped, making it impossible to get to the cabbages without wearing rubber boots.
“It’s really sad, there’s been so much water that you can’t get into the field with a tractor and the result is that (everything) is drowning. Half of the [crops] in this field have been lost – definitely half – but actually I think there may be even more crops loss because the rain has dampened everything and there is no air,” said Jaanus Trolla, the owner of Ilumäe Farm.
Other farmers in Võru County are also struggling with the same problem – there is a lot of water between the rows, so you have to wait for drier weather to be able to maintain the fields with machinery.
“We take what we can from here and that’s it – and there’s nothing we can do about it. Next year we hope things will be better. I don’t have all the crops in just one field, they’re in five or six different fields, so there’s always something from somewhere,” said Trolla.
At Võido Farm in Ahja, Põlva County, there are also concerns about the potato fields. The constant rain makes it very difficult to even go out with a tractor to plough the fields. The soil is lumpy due to the excess water and the fields cannot support the machines’ weight. This year, the potatoes were planted much later than usual – in early June – due to the rainy spring.
“The ground underneath the field is so soft that I tried to turn it over it but the wheels just spin round and round, you can’t do it, it’s a bit of a mess. We’ll have to wait for better weather, and everything now depends on the fall to see how good the yield will be and what we can get from here,” said Martin Lillo, the owner of Võido Farm.
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