In the northern departments of Santa Fe the landscape is bleak: dead cows, dried up streams, destroyed crops and pastures, cracked earth from lack of moisture.
“the landscape is blackIt’s very, very complicated,” said the president of the Rural Roasting Society, Jorge Mercau in dialogue with Rural Clarin.
There, the farm’s water supply depends on the Salado River which has its source in Salta, crosses Santiago de Estero and flows into Paraná, but these days, after a prolonged drought and endless days of extremely high temperatures, it is practically dry. he can see his bed and even walk on it. Due to lack of water, More than 3,000 animals have already died on the banks of the Salado River in a region that includes the departments Nueve de Julio, Vera, General Obligado and San Cristóbal.
“The problem is that from Salta and Santiago del Estero provide little or no water. We have an agreement to supply 3 cubic meters per second which was more or less respected, but this year from Salta they don’t release much water to Santiago and Santa Fe is paying the consequences because it is always the last link in the can,” Mercau explained. “In times of excessive rain, all the water is sent to Santa Fe and in times of drought they don’t send it, we are always damaged, on both sides,” he added.
Faced with this scenario, rural producers and government authorities in the region have requested that an inter-jurisdictional meeting of the three provinces be held as soon as possible to resolve the urgent situation.
The most immediate solution to mitigate the effects of severe drought would be Urgent opening of the Cabra Corral dam in Salta -which is full- and of the Figueroa dam in Santiago del Estero. “With that, which is automatic, if they give us the agreed 3 cubic meters, in 10 days we would have water”, assured Mercau.
These days, all streams and lagoons north of Santa Fe are dry and can be traversed on foot. There is also no groundwater available and the weather found in some lots, even in the high field, it is salinizing by the decrease of napas. “We can’t use the pumps because there isn’t enough water, so we have to use the windmills, but there was no wind either. All channels of the Submeridional Bajos are drytherefore there is so much animal mortality, everywhere”, Mercau complained.
“The animals go into the rivulets and get bogged down, they can’t get up because the body condition is bad because there is no grass, and they die,” said the producer. The current problem is serious and will also have consequences in the future. “The pregnancy will be 50% of what we had before, it will reach 30% Aside from mortality, this will be felt on 23/24,” Mercau warned.
Without grass and without water, producers are forced to be separated from their animals. “Due to the large amount of farms sold, prices have fallen at auctions; no one buys overwintering as there is nowhere to take it, for feed it is no longer a deal breaker to fatten them up unless they get very cheap corn; and the few producers who managed to get fat did it on corn, losing money, but at least they ran out of it and took it off the field,” he explained.
Added to this bleak landscape, in agricultural lots the grain crop was almost entirely lost, half the sunflower that could be planted, and all the early corn. It’s also worrying delayed cotton planting what It could only be done in December when the optimal date is November. “Some have released a batch of soybeans and are only now encouraging themselves with some sorghum to have reserves for next year, but they depend on whether it rains these days because otherwise it will be lost. It’s terrible, it’s scary”, described the leader. Perhaps they still have the ability to produce second-grade corn if the rains arrive in time. The window that would allow them to plant soybeans and cotton closes on January 10 in that area and everyone looks at the sky waiting for the miracle to happen.
Source: Clarin
