The high price of grain due to its scarcity and the lack of income alternatives has aroused interest in planting it.
The constant trips by plane made by the members of the Balanced Food Producers Association (Aprobal) between Guayas and Manabí alerted them to a “big problem”. From the air it can be seen that the remnants of the tropical dry forest are being destroyed, in the two provinces, by controlled fires and logging. This would be given to expand corn crops.
The most affected cantons would be Jipijapa, May 24, Paján, Santa Ana, Portoviejo and Junín, in Manabí, and Pedro Carbo, Isidro Ayora and Lomas de Sargentillo, in Guayas. This situation would be driven by the high prices of grain that were registered during 2021, indicates Jorge Josse, director of Aprobal.
The Animal Protein Chain, which is made up of the Ecuadorian Association of Balanced Foods (Afaba), the Association of Pork Producers, the National Corporation of Poultry Farmers of Ecuador (Conave) and Aprobal, has alerted the control authorities.
The body states that “part of the corn absorbed and used by the country’s animal protein industry is corn produced in these areas (deforested from the tropical dry forest). If there is a way to identify and differentiate the grain from these deforestation areas, the industry assures that it would refrain from buying it, since the chain cannot ignore and be a silent witness to the destruction of the forests”.
Josse affirms that if the situation continues like this in “a few years” only the strip of forest that faces the sea will remain in the Chongón-Colonche mountain range, “because the community members of that area understood the issue of conservation, but on the inland side. it is being deforested without impediments ”.
The maximum price of corn last year was between $ 17.50 and $ 19 in Ecuador. However, internationally the maximum value was $ 16.50 in mid-2021.
“This is because there is a deficit of corn, there is a shortage. In addition, as a country we must change our mentality, environmental education and not think that this is only mountains and that is why we can burn. Trucks come out with the trunks of centuries-old trees, ”says Josse.
By 2020, the harvested area of corn in Ecuador was 355,913 hectares, covering a production of 1,358,626 metric tons, according to figures from the Ministry of Agriculture. The country produces only 90% of the corn it consumes.
From 2012 to 2020, 196,429 hectares of forests were lost throughout Ecuador due to fires, the vast majority caused by man for extractive activities, according to figures from the Ministry of the Environment, Water and Ecological Transition (Maate).
In addition, 80% of the fires registered between 2010 and 2018 occurred in the Sierra, 19% on the Coast and 1% in the Amazon and Galapagos. Historically, the provinces with the greatest impact on the Sierra have been Loja, Pichincha, Imbabura, Chimborazo and Azuay. On the coast are El Oro, Guayas, Manabí and Santa Elena, indicate the statistics of the National Service for Risk and Emergency Management.
Pandemic has not stopped deforestation and illegal logging in Ecuador
Less than 10% of the tropical dry forests, restricted to the south and west of Ecuador, remain conserved, mainly thanks to governmental and private initiatives. El Maate says that more than 7,000 cubic meters of wood have been seized in just the seven months of the current government. A figure that would show the controls they carry out to protect the forests. In addition, the Ecuador campaign without forest fires stands out, in which early warnings, heat sources and burning scars are monitored.
However, Josse affirms that the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock must intervene in these controls and campaigns, since it is the small farmers who are deforesting the dry forest.
“They should reach these farmers with an education campaign that exposes the importance of conserving species and ecosystems, and propose other income options such as sustainable tourism.”, He emphasizes.
In addition, maintaining these forests contributes to retaining clouds, generating rain and filling the aquifers that, in turn, feed the wells that the rural population uses for their consumption. As these forests are lost, the drought will be accentuated in the western areas of Guayas and Manabí. (I)
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