The rain stopped in spring and never came back. From France to Czechia, this summer’s harvest is withering — and depleting aid funds built for one-off disasters, not a crisis that returns every year.
Climate change has made dry seasons so frequent in Europe that the aid has become routine, too: national rescue packages, topped up by EU money. Nearly all of it covers what farmers have already lost; very little goes toward surviving the next one.
For all the money the EU spends on farming, none of it is guaranteed to farmers when drought hits. Every rescue is improvised, decided one at a time. And the European Commission says it can’t afford a standing fund unless capitals pay in more, which none have offered to do.
In Czechia, just 32 millimeters of rain fell across March and April — the driest spring in more than 60 years. The heat that followed pushed field temperatures past 50 degrees Celsius. “In some cases maize fields are failing to produce anything which can be used as fodder for animals,” said Jan Doležal of the Agrarian Chamber of the Czech Republic farm lobby. He hoped the EU would pay out for the damage in the fall.
