“The drought is very ungrateful”, regret the Argentine agricultural producers

“Drought is very ungrateful”describes the producer Jorge Sáenz, to express the spirit of the farmers and the argentine governmentthe first because they do not know how they will finance the next campaign and the Executive because some 20,000 million would be lost exports in a country lacking foreign exchange.

“The drought affects your mood. You begin to see that everything is going backwards, the animals are left without grass. hot days”says Sáenz, who manages a field in the southwest of the province of Buenos Aires and is vice president of the civil association CREA.

The call “open sky factory” Argentina -one of the main agricultural producers and exporters in the world- has been hit by several records: rainfall deficit for the third consecutive year in the (austral) summer, persistent heat waves until well into March and agronomic frosts as late as October in 2022 and as early as February 2023.

As a continuation of the phenomenon “The girl”, 46% of the Argentine territory north of Patagonia suffered from drought as of March 10, according to the Drought Information System for southern South America, which made it more difficult to live with an extensive and intense heat wave that shaped the warmest summer recorded in Argentina.

Producers have seen the conditions of crops, animals, and natural resources deteriorate week by week, and they are already quantifying the losses.

“You see the crops are not advancing. Not that they do not advance, but that they go backwards. Added to the heat wave of the last ten days, production decreases. You see how he is dying and giving up everything”describes Sáenz.

Only focusing on soybean, wheat and corn crops (jointly responsible for 87% of grain production in Argentina and 43% of the country’s total exports), the losses for the producing sector exceed 14.140 million dollars, according to the Rosario Stock Exchange (BCR).

When adding the impact of the lower demand for freight, labor, financial services, among others, the total losses for Argentine economic activity amount to 19,000 million dollars, that is, the drought has already claimed 3 points of the estimated Argentine GDP by 2023, according to BCR.

According to the latest report from the National Directorate of Agricultural Risk and Emergency (DNRyEA), 11,432,988 crops and 24,333,868 head of cattle are at risk due to the lack of rain since last January.

The central, northeast and northeast areas were the most affected in the country, the lack of water generated historical losses in the yields of their crops and had a strong impact on livestock systems by seeing a decrease in fodder and animal drink.

Deficit

The drought has a very large impact on the framework of small communities, with 30,000 inhabitants, because fewer services associated with the harvest can be provided.

“At the farmer level, the question is how the next campaign is going to be financed. Working capital is being lost.”explains Sáenz, because “The harvest is not enough to pay for the campaign itself and that you have more than enough for the next one.”

Last year, when the war broke out in Ukraine, the Argentine agribusiness offset the negative impact of the conflict, since the main agricultural complexes saw their sales grow 8.5%, although the quantities fell 5.5%, due to the improvement of prices in international markets, according to BCR.

This year, Sáenz explains that fertilizers, which increase costs, have lowered their prices, but also those of raw materials to be exported, so there will be less production and lower prices.

Less Biomass

Argentina is not used to these droughts. “In areas where production is very good, we are talking about rainfall records being 50% of what was expected”says Saenz.

“There is less biomass production”he describes, because the plants grow less and there is less production of leaves and stems when there is no water.

Defensive strategies include direct sowing, adjusting sowing dates – delaying or advancing them, depending on the time of the rain -, crop management or crop rotation, and livestock.

But the continuity of the drought means that producers do not find a window to sow.

Ranchers report problems in forage resources, because there is a decrease in grass production, which implies decreases in dairy and meat production.

The producers apply different strategies so that the cattle breeding does not fall, such as advancing weaning; get more fodder reserves; reduce the herds by sending them to slaughter or to other productive systems, and in dairy productions, diets are adjusted to make them more efficient and the comfort of the animal.

In this context of heat and drought, “It’s good to be in a group of producers”as CREATE, “because you have containment”, says Sáenz, and the actions allow us to find solutions together.

“You keep betting”says Saenz.

Agricultural producers do not give up, but are already thinking about the next campaign, in the fine sowing of April: “We are aware that the weather is one of the risks”close.

Source: EFE