2024, a year of agricultural calamities driven by climate change

In 40 years in the business, Jérôme Genty thought he’d seen it all: frosts, droughts and heatwaves. On his 220-hectare farm in the town of Courbouzon in central France, where he grows wheat, rapeseed, barley, corn and a few vegetables, he has “experienced everything a cereal farm can go through.” But 2024 will go down as a particularly dark year. The difficulties began a year ago, with excessive rain disrupting every stage of cultivation, from planting to harvesting. The latest episode happened on October 8 and 9, during the passage of storm Kirk, when 55 millimeters of cumulative rain poured down on already waterlogged fields. “I have fields drowned for 20 to 30 centimeters,” said Genty.

In one year, a total of 1,000 millimeters of rain fell, compared with the usual yearly average of 640 millimeters. “It’s as if we’d had the equivalent of six months’ extra rainfall over the year,” said the farmer. In these conditions, it’s difficult for plants to root and develop properly, and it’s challenging to harvest on schedule. As a result, Genty is reporting a 30% to 40% drop in winter crop production due to unsown areas and poor yields. He still holds out hope for his corn, sorghum and millet crops, which he should be harvesting in a few weeks; everything will depend on weather conditions. “It’s really been a calamitous year. We’re constantly scrutinizing the forecasts, but it’s clear that nature has the last word,” he said.

Genty is not an isolated case. French cereal growers recorded production volumes in 2024 down 22% on the average for the previous five years, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. They are not the only ones to have been affected by the variable weather: Vineyards have suffered particularly badly in the south due to the lack of water and are expected to post volumes down 11% on average. Meanwhile, apricot production is down more than 30% from 2023. While some crops, such as strawberries, have benefited from favorable weather conditions, others are struggling, such as melons, whose production volumes have fallen by 10%. The weather has also affected crop quality, with the sector fearful of having to downgrade large volumes of wheat to less remunerative markets, such as animal feed.

‘Only the beginning of changes’

The two antagonistic phenomena that have damaged crops – drought in the south of France and excessive rainfall north of the Loire – share a common denominator: climate climate. It is driving not only to a rise in average temperatures but also to an intensification of meteorological extremes.

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