Farmers in Russia’s breadbasket are battling temperatures over 120 degrees and trying to save a wheat crop hit hard by a heatwave, frosts, and even floods. Rostov, one of Russia’s key wheat-growing regions, accounted for 11 percent of the country’s total grain harvest last year, and ag ministry officials are monitoring it to make more adjustments to an already soft 2024 wheat forecast.

The ministry’s most recent estimate says the Russian grain harvest will hit 132 million tons, nine percent below the 145 million in 2023 and 16 percent from a record 158 million in 2022. After a serious heatwave followed frosts in the spring, Rostov expects its grain harvest to drop approximately 38 percent this year to ten million tons. An agronomist says the wheat initially came out of winter in good condition, and the harvest prospects were excellent. Now, they’re only harvesting what’s left after a rough season.