Drought imposes emergency in agricultural production areas of the Capital

The intense heat that gets worse every day in Rio Grande do Sul has established a situation without recent precedent. The drought that has brought days of sunshine and little humidity has led the city of Porto Alegre to declare an emergency situation in areas with primary production and that have been affected by the phenomenon.

According to the acting mayor, Ricardo Gomes, Decree No. 21,852/2023 allows the government to quickly implement measures to help those affected by water shortages.

“It is important that we join forces to minimize the impacts of the water crisis in the rural area of ​​the city, in addition to enabling Porto Alegre to receive resources that the State and the Union can direct to apply in the affected areas”, explains Gomes.

The most significant losses occur in the cultivation of vegetables, flowers, fruits and grains. Livestock is also affected by the decrease in the quality of pastures, while the reduction in the level of dams harms fish farming. The main crops affected are maize, with losses of 80%; soy, with a loss of 31.4%; vegetable crops such as pumpkins, squash, cucumber, tomato, eggplant, cabbage, broccoli, lettuce and arugula, for example, registered a 50% drop; and fruit growing, with a 30% drop in melon, watermelon and fig crops.

“We have more than 500 hectares of soybeans in the Capital, and less than 300 hectares are irrigated. Even in some of these areas there is some risk because the water reservoirs are very low. In corn, a crop planted in 60 hectares, there are crops with small irrigated plots. But the rest is really lost. There are situations of losses of 100%”, says Emater extensionist Luís Paulo Vieira Ramos.

Among vegetables, even irrigation does not prevent damage in the current scenario. The high incidence of sun and the absence of shading ends up burning the leaves. The vegetables are very close to the limit.

“Producers are harvesting what they can to sell, as the point of total loss is just ahead. The decree allows the city hall to help producers with seeds for new plantings, for example. But it is necessary to adopt structuring measures, such as the construction of reservoirs and cisterns to avoid losses in the future. The levels of the reservoirs in the Capital are between 10% and 15%, at most”, adds the agronomist.

The head of the Secretariat for Local Governance and Political Coordination, Cassio Trogildo, estimates that 120 families are among the most affected by the drought and calculates that the damage has already reached R$ 4.1 million. He points out that the objective is to act preventively and avoid a calamity situation.

“In 2022, Porto Alegre declared an emergency due to the domestic water supply. But for primary production, I have no recollection of a situation like this. Within the municipality, the document will allow us to act immediately and effectively to remedy the damage to primary production. In addition, producers can access lines of credit and negotiate their debts,” he explained.

With the decree, contracts for the acquisition of goods necessary for disaster response activities, provision of services and works related to the rehabilitation of disaster scenarios are exempted from bidding, provided that they can be completed within a maximum period of 180 days.

“We have 12 dams with projects underway at the moment. And we are also discussing the allocation of resources for urgent and preventive demands. We have to create conditions for the producer to plant again without running the risk of losing everything again”, emphasizes Cássio Trogildo.

The city hall is evaluating the availability of resources for the use of an excavator to clean and open new dams. But this is a measure that does not suit all property profiles, with different soil conditions, for example. Another option would be the construction of cisterns, although the water reserve capacity is smaller.

“An alternative is to also provide irrigation for families that develop the activity for subsistence, in areas of half a hectare, for example. And we want to encourage low-carbon agriculture and agroforestry regimes, with good soil cover and greater water retention. It is a concept that we are going to pursue”, completes Secretary Trogildo.