The drought in the cereal fields
The farmers of the Bages district, most of them elderly, do not remember a cereal harvest as miserable as the one in 2023. The drought continues since January 2021 and it has been especially severe in the last 9 months, from September 2022 to April 2023. It might last even for longer. As a result, part of the sown grain has failed to germinate and the few wheat or barley plants that have grown are still minute.
The images show representative of the general state barley fields in the Pla de Bages, on 05.01.2023. Barley is the most traditional crop in the district. On the first of May, a dense mass of over half a meter tall, topped by erect spikes green stalks would be expected. In fact, there is a clear field of one-foot-high plants that have prematurely yellowed and with no grains. Nothing will be harvested, not even the straw.
[photos Jordi Badia]