Fruit growers in Croatia no longer have difficulty obtaining financial support to start a plantation, but now they have much more trouble coping with global warming that has caused tectonic disruptions in food production.

Mladen Matica, owner of the Matica Bolto family farm, says that fruit growers feel the most how much the climate has changed since they started their farms.

The only fruit with an above-average yield at Matica’s farm this year is grapes, while all the other fruits had a poor yield.

“Winter no longer exists, spring comes in January and February, after which frost hits and significantly reduces the expected yield in orchards. On the other hand, summers have become too hot, and without irrigation, it is not possible to plan more serious yields,” says Matica, who owns a vineyard and an apple, peach and plum orchard.

His words are confirmed by weather forecaster Kristijan Bozarov, who says that in the past 150 years, which is how long air temperature has been measured in Croatia, the weather has evidently become warmer, which affects agricultural production.

“Winters usually have short cold spells, with very little snow, after which comes spring during which temperatures drop significantly for a period of approximately two weeks,” he says.

Plant protection expert Zeljkica Ostrkapa-Medjurecan says that plant vegetation starts earlier because soil warms up sooner in the year. She notes that the higher temperatures not only affect plant growth and development but also cause the spreading of plant diseases and an increase in pests, such as the southern green stink bug, whose populations have increased significantly in the northwest of Croatia, and the insect can be found on various crops as a polyphagous pest.

Due to the higher temperatures, losses from direct damage to agricultural crops have been rising as have production costs due to the need for additional protection, and the high temperatures also reduce the effectiveness of insecticides.

Fruit trees are particularly sensitive to oscillations in temperature. Almost every year, in January or February, air temperature reaches a maximum of 15 to 20 degrees Celsius, when fruit trees start to vegetate and they cannot withstand a sudden drop in temperature to minus nine degrees Celsius, which has happened frequently in recent years.

This causes damage to fruit trees, which dry up in the following years, and that is what has been happening with stone fruit plantations in the Podravina region, notably plum, sour cherry, peach and apricot trees, Ostrkapa-Medjurecan warns.

Summer temperatures are not harmless either because temperatures of above 30 degrees Celsius cause a heat shock and sun radiation causes burns on fruit like apples, she says.

Serious vegetable production is unthinkable without irrigation and most permanent crops need to be watered. Some types of fruit, such as plums, cherries, and even hazelnut trees, are watered today while before they used to be grown without additional watering, Ostrkapa-Medjurecan says.

“Agriculture inevitably has to adapt to the changed circumstances. Irrigation will help solve the problem of lack of rain at critical plant development stages, but extreme temperatures will be more difficult to deal with. There are frost protection systems but temperature oscillations during the winter months will continue to be a major problem,” she says, noting that breeders will have to work on selecting new, more resilient varieties that will be able to withstand weather oscillations, as well as carefully choose growing areas.