Scientists are of the opinion that climate change could provide Norway’s agriculture sector with some major future advantages. As the country's farmers are enjoying a very rich autumn harvest, the prognosis for fruit and vegetable harvests is looking particularly good.
“Autumn has been fantastic, and the forecasts for vegetables such as potatoes, carrots and onions are very good. With both potatoes and carrots, we are expecting a better year than last, and to end on par with 2014, which was a particularly good year,” said Morten N. Andersen, the head of the Green Growers’ Cooperative Market Council (Grøntprodusentenes samarbeidsråd - GPS).
“The year as a whole has been very suitable for fruit. Autumn has for example been very nice for apples, which are growing very large in the heat,” GPS spokesman Bjørn Eidhammer said.
Tore Furevik of the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, said that the good crop yields are confirming what climate models have predicted.
“We have already observed a longer growing season in Norway; spring comes earlier and the summer and autumn last longer. We see this in the temperature measurements,” Furevik said.
While the higher temperatures brought on by climate change generally have a negative impact on food production for the rest of the world, Norway is experiencing the opposite.
“Although increased precipitation also can give the farmers challenges, we can nevertheless see that the longer growing season has more positive than negative effects on agriculture. But the harvest will obviously vary from year to year, and some years can experience extreme rainfall that will lead to particularly vulnerable periods,” he said.
Source: thelocal.no