“Tragic” water shortages are hitting Cypriot farmers, farmers’ union chairman Panicos Hambas said on Saturday, warning that if efforts are not made to ensure water security, “we will soon not be talking about food being expensive, but about food insecurity”.

He said many producers who sow hay for animal feed are “seeing their crops turn yellow before they have time to grow”, and are as such forced to harvest their crops earlier than before, resulting in a “much lower” yield.

While the rain which fell across the island on Friday may be beneficial for some crops, he said, “it was already too late for those who had already harvested their crops or for those whose crops had already turned yellow”.

“Soon, we will not be talking about food being expensive, we will be talking about food insecurity. We will be looking for food,” he added.

With this in mind, he said the government’s goal must be “to make farmers independent of weather conditions”, calling for more investment in the maintenance of reservoirs, while also calling for farmers to be prioritised when water is scarce.

“You cannot cut water off from farmers and give it to golf courses,” he said, adding that it should be mandatory for hotels to have their own desalination units.

Cyprus’ reservoirs were, at the last count on Friday, just 24.1 per cent full.

In total, there are 70.2 million cubic metres of water in Cyprus’ reservoirs at present – 24.1 per cent of total capacity – which a little over half figure recorded this time last year, when there were 135 million cubic metres of water in the reservoirs, meaning they were 46.6 per cent full at the time.

Broken down by area, those linked to the southern conveyor are now just 23.8 per cent full, compared to a figure of 42.4 per cent recorded a year ago.

Reservoirs in the Paphos are just 24.5 per cent full, having been 54.6 per cent full a year ago, with the Mavrokolympos reservoir having been completely emptied earlier this year due to a corroded vent in the dam.

Reservoirs near Polis Chrysochous are currently 26,1 per cent full, less than half the figure of 54.3 per cent recorded last year, while the starkest difference was recorded in the Nicosia district, where reservoirs are currently just 19.8 per cent full – a little over a third of last year’s figure of 54.2 per cent.

In particular, the Vyzakia reservoir in the Nicosia district has just 48,000 cubic metres of water in it and is as such just 2.8 per cent full. This time a year ago, it held 14 times more water.