Debate about wheat cultivation on ecological priority areas.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin The global shortage of wheat, triggered by the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, is also fueling the debate in Germany about grain cultivation for the 2023 harvest year. Politicians from the Union and FDP as well as the German Farmers’ Association called on the Handelsblatt to increase domestic production in order to to secure supplies and enable more exports.
Farmers could adapt the cultivation plan for 2023, which is due in July, to “geopolitical necessities”, said the President of the German Farmers’ Association, Joachim Rukwied, to the Handelsblatt. “We German farmers are offering to make a contribution to reducing the food shortages, especially in Africa, Asia and Arabia,” said Rukwied.
An increase in production would go hand in hand with the expansion of acreage. In March, the EU Commission presented corresponding plans which, among other things, provide for the temporary management of fallow land that was actually intended to promote biodiversity. Soybeans and corn for animal fattening are primarily to be grown there – because up until now around half of the corn in the EU has come from the Ukraine.
While the Commission had decided to allow production on these ecological fallow land for 2022 without restrictions, i.e. also with the use of pesticides, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture has so far been critical of this far-reaching approach.
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In a vote in the Bundesrat, the federal states voted against extensive use of the areas. Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir (Greens) argued at the EU Agricultural and Fisheries Council in Luxembourg that, despite the Ukraine war, the “transformation towards sustainable agricultural systems” must be further advanced. “We must now continue to invest in biodiversity and climate protection in order to secure the basis of agriculture,” said Özdemir.
The extent of the added benefit is unclear
For cultivation in 2023, German farmers now fear a disadvantage in European competition. Farmers’ Union President Rukwied therefore called for “equal treatment” of German farmers at European level.
The Ministry of Agriculture expects a significantly lower production capacity than the farmers’ association.
(Photo: obs)
In an interview with the Handelsblatt, Development Minister Svenja Schulze also spoke out against expanding cultivation. Instead, she called for less land to be made available for biofuel and more for food production.
Estimates differ as to how much additional production would be possible through the additional use of set-aside land. Farmer President Rukwied expects that around 250,000 hectares of the ecological priority areas could be used for agriculture again – to grow 1.5 million tons of wheat. The Ministry of Agriculture, on the other hand, expects a significantly lower production capacity.
The member of parliament and development politician Wolfgang Stefinger (CSU) also spoke out in favor of expanding the production areas for grain. “If every country now calculates its own possibilities in order to end up doing nothing at all, there is no way we will solve this crisis,” said Stefinger. In this exceptional situation, in which possible famines are at stake, ecological priority areas should be released for the expansion of food.
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The FDP member of parliament and agricultural politician Carina Konrad called the set-aside of areas “dramatically short-sighted” and called for intensifying production through innovations in modern biotechnology.
At the moment, the farmers’ association is also worried about next year’s harvest because of the high prices for nitrogen fertilizers, which are made from natural gas. Compared to last year, the price has already quadrupled – a disruption in Russian gas supplies could push it higher.
The farmers’ association is therefore calling for a national reserve of fertilizers to be built up for spring 2023. Similar to the national stockpiling of natural gas and liquid gas, a reserve for fertilizer should also be built up in order to be supplied for spring 2023. Farmers’ Union President Rukwied warns: “Should there be any failures, significantly lower harvests would be inevitable from 2023”.
More: Bayer chief lobbyist Berninger: “We are heading for the greatest famine in human history”