This year's wheat harvest in Slovakia totaled 1.2 million metric tons, 639,000 metric tons less than last year and the smallest in a decade.
Experts ascribe the bad results to bad weather, floods and lower sown acreage. The total acreage sown with wheat totaled 299,700 hectares this year, down 132,000 hectares from 1998.
The harvest of barley, rye, and oats crops is not complete, but all have shown significant drops in sown acreages and average yield per hectare. All in all, the total grain harvest so far amounts to 2.095 million metric tons, 852,000 metric tons less than in 1998, while the average harvest per hectare decreased 0.48 of a metric ton.
Only oilseed rape, whose sown acreage almost doubled to 115,000 hectares, reported better results than in the previous year.
The total oilseed rape harvest was 246,700 metric tons, up 125,000 metric tons y/y. The average harvest per hectare increased 0.16 of a metric tonne.
