Foreign
CANADA, a major wheat exporter, recently said its wheat area had risen to the highest in a decade.
But given uncertainties, such as weather, its production rise and potential to ease the global food crisis may be limited, it said.
Nationally, farmers reported planting 25.4 million acres of wheat in 2022, up by 8.7 per cent from 2021, according to the 2022 June Field Crop Survey of about 25,000 farms by Canada’s National Statistical Office.
Specifically, the spring wheat area rose by 10.5 per cent to 18.2 million acres, and durum wheat rose by 8.6 per cent to 6 million acres, while winter wheat, grown predominantly in eastern Canada, decreased by 12.7 per cent to 1.2 million acres.
However, unpredictable weather throughout the year impacts when wheat is harvested and how much of the crop is usable, so the additional acres may not necessarily yield higher production.
“Canada can’t easily bridge gaps in global food supplies, as the Ukraine crisis, the pandemic and the energy shock have thrown the global food system into disarray,” Benjamin Richardson, Royal Bank of Canada researcher wrote.
He added that barriers to producing more food were related to climate and terrain, and expanding farms involved costly undertakings to prepare the land, acquired new supplies and installed irrigation systems.
In 2021 summer, Prairie wheat farmers in Western Canada, where most wheat is grown, endured their worst drought in almost two decades.
Due to record-high temperatures, combined with little rain, the yield in 2021 decreased by 38.1 per cent from 2020 to 31.6 bushels per acre, the lowest wheat yield in two decades.
As a result, Canadian wheat production in 2021 fell by 38.5 per cent from 2020 to 21.7 million tonnes, or an annual loss of 14 million tonnes, and exports were down by 44 per cent.
Dry summers can stunt the growth of crops and, therefore, hurt yields.
Farmers this year are hoping for less heat and more rain than in 2021.
Unfortunately, wheat farmers in some areas have contended with more rain than usual this spring and a large dump of snow that has delayed seeding.
Richardson said that what Canada, a top player in the global fertiliser market, can do was to help ensure the situation isn’t made worse by filling another critical gap in fertiliser.
Canada’s fertiliser industry still has room to grow and may help sustain crop yields in other countries.
Russia and Ukraine were major producers of agricultural commodities, with a combined share of around 30 per cent of global wheat exports.
Boubaker Ben Belhassen, the spokesperson for the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the UN on June 10 said.
He warned that the Ukraine crisis has had a significant impact on the global food markets and could leave an additional 11 million to 19 million people with chronic hunger. (Xinhua/NAN)
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