From May 16 to 20, 2023, severe floods and over 300 landslides triggered by heavy rainfall in the Emilia-Romagna Region of Northern Italy caused 13 fatalities and significant damage, with one person still missing and 36 000 people evacuated. This extreme rainfall event caused extensive damage to farms and rural infrastructure.
Nearly 500 000 people in Jiangxi province were affected by heavy rains from Friday to Sunday, May 5 – 7, 2023, leading to the evacuation of around 14 000 residents and causing an estimated 520 million yuan ($75.2 million) in direct economic losses. China’s State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters launched a level-IV emergency response for flood control on May 6. Rescue operations are underway.
Rice production for 2023 is set to log its largest shortfall in two decades, according to Fitch Solutions. This severe global deficit is primarily driven by the ongoing war in Ukraine, and weather-related challenges in major rice-producing countries like China and Pakistan.
Unseasonal rains, hailstorms, and strong winds damaged more than 523 000 ha (1 292 332 acres) of wheat crop in three Indian states, causing harvesting challenges and fears of significant yield losses. The untimely rains have also affected mustard, channa, barley, and vegetable crops, among others.
Prayagraj District, the most populous district in the Uttar Pradesh state of India, has been hit by heavy unseasonal rain and hailstorm that devastated the farming community on March 19 and again on March 21, 2023. The natural calamity has caused extensive damage to crops of over 10 030 farmers in the region.
Extremely heavy rain brought by Tropical Storm “Nesat” over the weekend hit parts of Taiwan, causing huge agricultural losses. The worst affected were farmers in northern and northeastern parts of the country.
An intense hailstorm hit Qhingyuan District in China’s Hebei Province on June 14, 2022, causing severe damage to crops and other material losses.
Spain is expected to produce its lowest volume of fruit in the last 40 years due to frost that hit its fruit-production regions in early April, especially the Ebro Valley – one of the most important producing areas of sweet fruit in Europe.
A severe hailstorm struck Murcia, Spain on May 2, 2022, causing major damage to the apricot crop. The Region of Murcia is located in the southeast part of the Iberian Peninsula and produces two-thirds of Spain’s apricot. The storm comes one month after early April frost caused massive damage to stone fruit in Ebro valley, one of the most important producing areas of sweet fruit in Europe.
A severe hailstorm lashed parts of north Kashmir on April 25, 2022, causing heavy damage to fruit orchards. This is the second damaging hailstorm to hit the region this month.
