Losses are also expected for orchards, vineyards, olive oil production and vegetable farming, Serge Zaka, an agrometeorologist, told CNN. Livestock farming is at risk as farmers need pasture to feed their animals. That’s an area bigger than the state of Maryland. It’s a story which tracks across the country’s agricultural heartlands.ĭrought affects 60% of Spain’s countryside, and has destroyed crops across 3.5 million hectares (8.6 million acres), according to the Coordinator of Farmers’ and Ranchers’ Organizations (COAG). The Sau Reservoir in Spain dropped to 7% of its capacity in April. “If it does not rain in May it will be a disaster,” he said. The majority of wheat and barley harvests on rainfed land will be lost, and on irrigated land will be cut by half, Costal told CNN. “There is no precedent,” said Martí Costal, head of water at the Young Farmers and Ranchers of Catalonia (JARC).

The lack of water is having a catastrophic impact on farms across the region. Reservoir levels across Catalonia are hovering at around 25%, substantially lower than usual for this time of year. Its water levels are so low that a medieval village, flooded when the lake was created in the 1960s, has emerged, lending an eerie presence to the sun-baked lakebed.Īuthorities have been forced to siphon out water from the reservoir in an attempt to protect water quality and have had to remove native fish to stop them asphyxiating. Located about 60 miles north of Barcelona, the reservoir is a key drinking water source for the region, but in late April it was only at 7% of capacity. “This is the worst period that we have had for the last 100 years,” Samuel Reyes, director of the Catalan Water Agency, told CNN. “They are typical of Catalonia’s Mediterranean climate,” said Albert Ruhi, a freshwater ecologist at the University of California, Berkeley, who is originally from Catalonia.īut a significant lack of rain and snow have made this one much, much drier, he told CNN.

It’s becoming increasingly hard to make ends meet as crops shrivel through lack of water – or cannot be planted at all.ĭroughts are a fact of life in this corner of Spain.

The lack of water is starting to feel like an existential crisis for farmers such as Caudevilla and he is worried about the future of his profession. Nothing is going to be harvested,” he said.Ĭaudevilla, who grows maize, sorghum and other crops in Gimenells in Catalonia, has been hit hard by the severe drought which has hammered this part of northeastern Spain.

“If the weather does not change it will be zero. Standing in his field of stunted, withered maize, Santi Caudevilla is very worried.

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