First rain finally falls, farmer Karel (43): « Every drop counts, but it must be much more » (inland)

Karel Coene (43) shows his corn field in Vleteren in West Flanders. During this period of the season, this field normally looks completely green, now the brown color of dried earth dominates. For the first time in a long time, the field is wet, but then Karel floats around the bottom: the dusty surface fades in his hands. « It’s raining, finally, but not everything is solved and certainly not with the quantities that have now been predicted, » he says.

« It’s raining, halleluja. » The irony drips off at Danny Metsu, farmer and ships in Ypres. “Even though there is still ten liters per square meter, this is the proverbial drop on the hot plate. It refreshes the plants, but to do really well, fifty liters must be widely arrived. There is already irreparable damage with, for example, flax and spinach. The early crop of cauliflower now has the tuber of tuber. Corn for the animals is not good and the grass production is skinny warms up.

« Everything depends on the amount that falls: every drop counts, but it must be more, much more. We hear the same story everywhere, » said Karel, who is also chairman of the National Guild in Vleteren. « I consciously chose not to pump and irrigate. A cost-benefit analysis, which depends on cultivation. I currently have corn and potatoes, but with vegetables it would be a different story. Currently the corn only comes here and there, in strips where the seeds fought. With the rain that is now predicted, I hope that the mais comes to this field.”

Carl Decaluwé, governor of West Flanders, also puts the first rainfall in perspective. « It was already predicted in the drought committee that this rainfall would be totally insufficient, » he says. « It has to rain for weeks on a piece of faltering, before we can talk about a normal state. I also hope for enough rainfall in the north of France, so that the Leie gets extra oxygen. This Tuesday there is a team meeting among technicians. If we go under the minimum standards, there will be an automatic captive ban, but this is viewed by stream. »

« I have been doing it for twenty years now and this is the driest spring that I have already experienced here, » Karel analyzes. « We will have to adjust and learn to live with it. No more vegetables? I don’t know if that is the solution. We still have to get our vegetables from somewhere and we can’t all plant vegetables, hey. Such circumstances we prefer not to have too much in the coming years. But yes, we have to continue. The farmer plowed on. »