Reports the lion's share or in some extreme cases the entire crop could be lost because of the lack of rain and searing heat have jolted EU officials into action on some kind of financial bail-out.

Although no major decision was expected to come from this meeting Austria, France, Germany and Italy, which holds the rotating EU presidency, have all called on the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, to come up with solutions.

French Agriculture Minister Herve Gaymard said on Tuesday in Paris that he would be calling on the EU to draw up plans for "aid in some form to improve the short-term cash flow problems of agricultural operations" hit by the drought.

France has already decided to act on a national level but has yet to say how much money will be handed out.

Germany, meanwhile, where officials fear farmers could lose up to 80 percent of their crops in some cases because of the hot and dry summer, says it too wants the EU to step in.

German Agriculture Minister Renate Kuenast said Tuesday that the government would in the meantime act independently to help farmers facing ruin.

Long periods of unusually high temperatures, reaching 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) or more, have also struck Italy, with the government at one stage considering whether to declare a state of emergency.

The country's main farmers' union, Coldiretti, warned on July 15 of a major agricultural crisis, saying that five regions in the north and six in central Italy are drought-stricken, with olive, corn and fruit production in jeopardy.

TERRA.WIRE