Dry Weather Leaves Farmers With a Poor Harvest

Germany’s hot and dry summer has resulted in the worst grain harvest in eight years. Federal Agriculture Minister Renate Künast said on Thursday that the 2003 harvest totalled 39.5 million tons of grain. This was 8.9 percent below 2002 levels and 13.1 percent less than the long-term average, she said. “We haven’t had a similarly poor harvest since 1995,” she said in Berlin. “For some regions, this is a catastrophe.” The federal government has already set up aid programs for farmers particularly affected by the situation.