Drought will cause crop failures in Spain, farmers warn

The Sau reservoir about 62 miles north of Barcelona (Emilio Morenatti/AP)

Drought now affects 60% of the Spanish countryside, with crops like wheat and barley in four regions likely to fail entirely, the main Spanish farmers association said on Thursday.

Spain’s long-term drought is causing “irreversible losses” to more than 3.5 million hectares of crops, the Coordinator of Farmers and Ranchers Organisations said in a new report, with wheat and barley in four major growing regions “written off” and badly affected in three more.