The impact of droughts on sunflower production in the Republic of Moldova

The impact of climate change on agriculture is difficult to assess, but estimating the possible effects generated by the increase in the frequency and intensity of weather-climate risk phenomena is a necessity. The purpose of this study is to highlight the impact of droughts of different intensity and territorial expansion on the sunflower crop in the Republic of Moldova. For this, the data from the last twenty years were analyzed, regarding the area cultivated with sunflowers, the global production and the average yield in the administrative-territorial profile, as well as annual and semi-annual precipitation and temperatures. During the analyzed period, the global sunflower production in the Republic of Moldova registers general growth trends, explained, for the most part, by the constant increase of the cultivated area, but also due to the high productive and qualitative performance of the new hybrids introduced into the crop. The analysis of the relationship between precipitation and temperature, and the sunflower harvest, highlighted the temporal evolution of the parameters and the dependence of the sunflower yield on environmental factors, and the negative influence of the drought on the harvest. The years with the highest droughts had a significant impact on the average harvest per hectare, strongly affecting the yield of sunflowers and reducing it by about 50%. The sunflower harvest was closely related to the precipitation during the growing season and those in the cold half of the year and less to the amount of annual rainfall. In addition, the high temperatures associated with periods of precipitation deficit determined low yields.