A warm, dry spell in Europe may reduce harvest yields for rapeseed, the continent’s most important oilseed crop, by adding pressure on plants that have endured adverse weather since sowing. Hot, dry spell affected flowering, caused too fast growth. Dims hopes of yields offsetting German, Polish area fall. France’s farm ministry estimates the rapeseed area at 1.50 million hectares, up 6.3 percent on last year. But 2017 also saw a record national yield of 3.8 tonnes per hectare.