Drought in RS punishes crops, empties dams and makes cattle lose weight – 02/21/2023 – Market

The lack of rain in the south of the country emptied dams on the property of Moisés de Jesus Machado, 59, in the rural area of ​​Porto Alegre. Of the 8 scattered around the site, only 1 was full of water on Thursday (16), according to the fish farmer.

This dam, he says, is located in a lower area of ​​the property, which facilitates storage, even when it rains little. According to Machado, fish farming has been reduced by about 70% due to the drought.

To save some of the larger species, he resorted to using plastic pools and water tanks. These options are most often used for the conservation of fry (chicks). “I’m working with a very reduced capacity”, he laments.

In the municipality of Seberi (about 410 km from the capital of Rio Grande do Sul), Valmir da Rosa Araújo, 47, also complains about the lack of rain. Two streams of water dried up on his rural property, leaving dairy cattle without access to sources to quench their thirst.

“We asked the city hall for help, which sent a truck with 20,000 liters. The water lasts for about a week,” he says.

According to Araújo, milk production on the property has dropped by half. It went from around 400 liters to the range of 200 liters per day. The drought also punished pastures, making it difficult to feed the 17 active cows.

Stories like this are not isolated. Under the influence of the climatic phenomenon La Niña, the lack of rain once again punished agricultural production in the state of Rio Grande do Sul in the summer.

In the last four years, this is the third drought that has had considerable effects on the state’s economy, say analysts. The other two took shape in early 2020 and 2022.

Producers claim that recent rains were not enough to compensate for the dry season and that losses have not been fully recovered.

Municipalities speak of a loss of R$ 13 billion

Gaucho municipalities already estimate a loss of R$ 13 billion with the new drought in 2023, according to data released on Friday (17) by the state government. This value still needs to be validated and may change until the end of the season.

On Friday, based on data from Emater-RS, the government also indicated that projections for soybean and corn production were revised downwards by 20.8% and 30.6%, respectively.

The technical director of Emater-RS, Alencar Rugeri, says that the situation is “very complex”, but considers that, so far, the drought is less intense than the drought of early 2022.

In this sense, he mentions that the number of municipalities in Rio Grande do Sul with emergency situation decrees is lower than last year. Until Friday (17), 307 were in this situation. In the same period of 2022, the number was 409.

“The droughts are not the same from one year to another. The current one has the characteristic of being very intense in some points of a region, with the situation changing a few kilometers later”, says Rugeri.

The Filhos de Sepé settlement, linked to the MST (Movement of Landless Rural Workers), accounts for the damage to the cultivation of organic rice.

This production involves 130 families in 1,600 hectares in the municipality of Viamão, in the metropolitan region of Porto Alegre.

The president of Aafise (Association of Residents of the Filhos de Sepé Settlement), Ivan Carlos Prado Pereira, 39, estimates a loss of 30% to 40% in this rice crop.

“That can’t be recovered. It’s gone. Let’s hope we don’t lose more,” he says. “Rice needs water in the foot. Excessive heat ends up heating the water, affecting reproduction.”

In total, 376 families live in the settlement, which also suffered losses in vegetables. In this case, the planted area is smaller, around 80 hectares. The estimated loss was 70%, according to Pereira.

The drought also reduced the weight of the cattle due to feeding difficulties. There are around 6,000 cattle in the settlement, according to the president of the association. “The loss was 20% to 30% in the weight of the animals”, he says.

GDP accompanies agro

In Rio Grande do Sul, when agriculture recedes, the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) performance is usually lower than the national one, points out researcher Sérgio Leusin Júnior, from DEE (Department of Economics and Statistics). The body is linked to the Secretariat of Planning, Governance and Management.

With the drought and the beginning of the pandemic, the Gaucho GDP fell by 7.2% in 2020, according to the DEE. That is, more than twice the Brazilian decline (-3.3%) at the time.

In 2021, there was a recovery in agriculture, and the state economy grew by 10.6%, above the increase seen in the country (5%).

Already throughout 2022, a year of drought in Rio Grande do Sul, the local GDP accumulated a drop of 6.6% until September. In Brazil, there was growth of 3.2% in the same period.

“After the gate of rural properties, sectors such as retail trade and machinery and equipment also suffer the effects of the drought”, says Leusin Júnior.

According to the researcher, more than half of the municipalities in Rio Grande do Sul (264 out of 497) had agriculture responsible for at least 30% of the gross value added to the economy in 2020.

The sector’s share was greater than 50% in 69 cities. This dependency is more frequent in municipalities with less than 5,000 inhabitants.

La Niña interferes, says expert

According to agrometeorologist Marco Antônio dos Santos, from Rural Clima consultancy, the drought records in Rio Grande do Sul can be associated with La Niña.

The weather event is responsible for affecting the circulation of winds and the distribution of rainfall. When it hits the country, it usually causes drought in the South.

“In general, every time we have La Niña, the humidity corridors of the Amazon are more concentrated in the central strip of Brazil. This takes pressure off the rains in the southern region”, stresses Santos.

In an interview with journalists on Friday (17), Governor Eduardo Leite (PSDB) presented an action plan against the effects of the drought.

Leite stated that the state provides support to city halls for emergency expenses generated by the drought, although it has no way of compensating for the economic damage.

Among the publicized actions are the debt amnesty of the Troca-Troca de Sementes program for family farmers in municipalities in emergency situations, the creation of an online drought monitoring system and the construction of cisterns.