Agriculture

Agriculture is vulnerable to all sources of weather risk. Temperature and rainfall in particular are two important factors that can make or break a farmers earnings.

Some examples include:

Corn: Drought conditions or low sunlight can compromise stalk quality. 'Stalk rots' are caused by high temperatures and moisture pressure on the stalks.

Wheat: Crop disease can develop with unfavourable weather conditions. Floods or excessive rainfall are major factors in causing crops to fail. Waterlogged soils make it impossible to plant seeds and can discourage growth. Drought conditions can stunt the growth of crops. 

Fruit:  Fruit blossoms are especially vunerable to frost days in spring.

Industry quotes

Farmers' livelihoods have been devastated across the UK by the June and July deluges. And now the impact looks set to hit the rest of us in the form of food shortages and raised prices. Peter Davis, managing director of fruit and vegetable distributor Davis Worldwide, says the public will feel the pinch and see gaps on their supermarket shelves until at least next April. "I don't want to exaggerate the problem we've got, but if I say it's a crisis, I'll be telling it exactly like it is," he told BBC Radio 4. "We're only cropping 15 to 20% of what we should be.”
(BBC News 24, July 2007)