A clearer understanding of the impact of extreme climate events on wheat yields

France, the major bread-basket for Western Europe, experienced catastrophic yield losses in 2016. Scientists from INRA, CNRS and CEA¹ have shown that in 2016, and in other years, abnormally high temperatures in late autumn accentuated the negative effect on wheat production of excessive rainfall the next spring. These extreme climatic conditions - some of which are likely to recur in the future - raise questions regarding both agricultural production systems and the prediction of crop yields. These findings were published on 24 April 2018 . The leading bread wheat producer in the European Union, France has been the setting for extreme climatic events in recent years. Heatwaves or cold snaps, excessive rainfall or drought, they all have important effects on crop yields. Thus in 2016, and quite unexpectedly, the production of bread wheat proved disastrous, with yield losses ranging from 20% to 50% in the principal French production region.