'Desperately wanting rain': Potato farmers worried for crop

With rainfall patchy across P.E.I. for the last two months, farmers are growing concerned about how the extended period of dry weather will hurt the potato crop.

"We're desperately wanting rain," said Rodney Dingwellchair of the P.E.I. Potato Boardand operator of Modhaicdh Farms in eastern P.E.I.

"We've experienced dry periods before and lived through them. How this one will affect us we're not sure because we just don't know how long it's going to last."

• July rainfall patchy across P.E.I.

Most of the rain P.E.I. saw in July fell in thunderstorms on the 21st, and that was patchy. Some farms saw as little as two millimetres of rain, said Dingwell. Even where significant quantities fell, much of it ran off the parched earth into rivers and the ocean.

The rain pretty much stopped falling in the middle of May.

• P.E.I. has been drier than normal for past 2 months

Dingwell said another two weeks of dry weather could create serious problems.

"That would be quite harmful to the crop," he said.

"Hopefully we won't experience that, but there's not much we can do to prevent it. We're at the hands of Mother Nature."

Dingwell said it'san issue all across the Island.

The current forecast holds some showers overnight,with more on Sunday, and an extended showery period on Tuesday and Wednesday.

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