Carlos Castagnani is a producer of cereals and meat in one-eyed deerSanta Fe. Tito Nicasio is a cattle producer in the north Between rivers (La Paz, Feliciano, Federal, Federation) and the south of Corrientes (Curuzú Cuatiá, Mercedes, Mocoretá). Abel Mielnik is a 60 hectare producer in the south of meanness.
Despite representing different regions, different businesses, and even different ages, their karma is the same: none of the three remembers having suffered a drought like the current one, which is forcing them to revise all plans, a lose as little as possible and propose a filming, if it rains…
There are three cases out of thousands. The drought has hit harder than ever and large numbers say they will lose at least this year 20,000 million dollars. The economic impact is brutal. clarion put the magnifying glass on three specific cases. They are the ones listed below.
Castagnani leads a family business that adds complete livestock cycle (breeding, wintering and fattening), agriculture with wheat, soybeans and corn. They also carry out a more intensive activity: the production of seeds under irrigation for a farm in the field. His two fields are located in La Chispa and Maggiolo, two towns located 30 kilometers from Venado Tuerto, where the whole family lives.
He testifies that “the drought is strongly affecting the central agricultural area. The damage started with the wheat, which had very little left, at the beginning of the summer. There were lots that could not be harvested directly. And then there were many fields not sown: for example, many inferior soybeans, which came after wheat, could not be planted due to lack of water”.
Nicasio reflects that the drought is gone “a terrible disaster”. The economic impact is eloquent: “rodeos are liquidated, the auctions have twice as many animals as usual and a cow is exchanged for a roll of pasture, because it is difficult to keep and fatten the cattle, due to the scarcity of water and food”.
Mielnik develops its rural production in the Scandinavian areaon Route 188, on Mendoza’s border with La Pampa. At various points in the country, it was able to add acreage at an average of 10 hectares per decade, while other producers were abandoning their farms. And he puts the “eggs in different baskets”: vines, a few fruit trees (peach and plum trees) and some pastures. But this year no one saves him.
Livestock on the Mesopotamian coast
In Nicasio, livestock breeding occupies more land than agriculture, because the land is not very fertile. The breeding for meat production is very bad in that area, with animals having a deplorable bodily state.
“Many people who had little property he sold all the calves he had to buy food, save some cows and have pregnant. But the percentage has dropped a lot and the consequence will be a lack of calves in the coming months,” he warns.
A significant percentage, around 25-30 percent, of the calves in Argentina come from this area. Which will be missing at the end of the year and next year.
Many ranchers have had to give up lease agreements, because they had rented fields and there was no grass. Thus the small producer is decapitalised, he has to sell the farm he has left. He doesn’t have the forage reserves he would have lived on all year round, he can’t feed the animals and the herd is shrinking. “It’s a collapsing situation, now and throughout the year”assures.
In this context, livestock prices fell sharply: the values that had recovered in January and February, after being stagnant for several months, have returned to falling. “In March the excess of wintering cows, preserves and that of veal at the feet, because there is no place to raise it. So few want to buy that kind of category. It is different from a veal, a heifer or a steer, which can be brought to a feedlot, although the costs are very high, depending on the corn prices,” he explains.
In any case, in the long run, it translates into scarcity and an increase in the price of meat per kilo. Livestock hurdles are seen in the medium term. This is why Nicasio believes that “the government’s aid plans must aim to look to the future. In livestock, to project medium term, you should be talking about 3-5 years and long term is 7-10 years. Less than that are unlikely speculations for a cattle rancher’s times and are utterly pointless.
Because of his experience, it’s hard for him to be optimistic. “The national and provincial governments in recent years have not implemented state policies that transcend the situation, they have simply put pieces of months that are useless for producers, much less for a farmer.” Therefore, you are convinced of this “The livestock situation in Entre Ríos and Corrientes is absolutely deteriorating”.
Regional economies in Mendoza
Mielnik’s two daughters studied at university, but the two twenty-year-old boys work with him. Despite all the setbacks, they preferred to continue the family tradition started by their grandfather, with the first 10 hectares he bought in the 70s. Later, Abel was enlarging the work area. But today he feels that instead of having a solid company he does a heavy backpack
The biggest concern of the Mielniks is, of course, the lack of water, not just rain, but also irrigation from the river’s flow. Atuel River, whose state-administered supply is less and less. In times of drought the question is more critical, in the context of historic dispute with La Pampa over its use.
They also lack manpower. Mielnik said clarion what’s more than an open secret, from the mountains to the sea, and from Ushuaia to La Quiaca. “Many people settle for social plans. They are given less than they could earn in rural jobs, but as they live the same way they don’t want to go near the farms. The government should review that policy, because we all lose,” he says bewildered.
In that sense, it is doubtful how they will solve the crucial pruningcrucial for subsequent productivity. It’s scheduled for August (last month with no r in the name) but they think it’s going to be in October and they’ll have to do it as a family.
The previous harvest was not good because hail fell just at Christmas and took the provincial air patrol by surprise, which usually breaks the ice stones before they fall. If the human is not well organized, any natural phenomenon affects worse. So, from heat to frost, they are like blows for a boxer who progressively loses strength.
The central agricultural area suffers the worst harvest in decades
South Santa Fe is a key area for the maize, the crop with the largest volume in Argentina (This year it would be 36 million tons and the soybean crop would barely reach 25 million tons: the corn is sown in September, as the “optimum date”. This time 20% of the usual area was covered, with results very scarce, and the corn planted after that date presents “various situations: some have been chopped, others herald low volumes and the exceptions are made normal”, reflects Castagnani.
As for premium soybeans, the Santa Fe producer believes that “it is the one that resists drought better because more than 50% of the second grade ones have been lost”.
The lack of water also affects the pastures, “because livestock farming does not prevail in the area, but it is intensive and it is complicated when planning is not possible due to lack of grass, rolls and corn silos. We expect a very difficult winter in terms of animal nutrition.”
These days are “death certificates”. Unfortunately, the first batches of harvested soybeans and corn yield alarming results. In this regard, Castagnani recalls that “rural production involves long cycles: we won’t have recovery in 60 days, but at least in 6-12 months. And if we talk about livestock, the terms are longer.
chestnuts it already perceives a brake on the economic activity of the productive interior. The first impact will be suffered by transport, since there will be a significant reduction in travel; half, it is calculated. There is also a significant decline in the sale of agricultural machinery and trucks.
The same recessionary phenomenon is observed in trade in production factors, “because producers have slowed down the purchases they usually make in this period to plan the next campaign. This is not the case this year, with the aggravating circumstance that many producers buy inputs due to the harvest, so we see that there will be problems with payments.”
If it doesn’t rain, the situation will get worse. In that central area of the country, about 200 millimeters are needed in the next two months to be able to think about the next wheat campaign. “If the water doesn’t recover the moisture in the soil, it won’t even be possible to sow”, warns the producer.
But despite his deep criticism of agricultural policies, he assumes that, as a deeply rooted family business, they are “planning the strategic changes we will have to implement in our production patterns, always thinking about producing again”.
Source: Clarin
