Brazil’s farmers fret over fires and drought
Brazil’s worst drought in 70 years is devastating its agricultural sector, with fires further compounding the damage. Sugarcane, coffee, oranges, and soybeans are all at risk, especially in São Paulo, where 230,000 hectares of sugarcane plantations have been affected. Farmers like Marcos Meloni are struggling, as fire and drought threaten crop yields. Coffee growers in Minas Gerais face a severe water deficit, putting future harvests in jeopardy. With less rain expected, recovery seems distant.
Sugarcane farmer Marcos Meloni is still haunted by his battle last month to fight the flames on his land, as the double-edged disaster of fires and drought hits Brazil’s agricultural sector hard.
“The rearview mirror of the water tanker shriveled up” from the intense heat, recalled the farmer from Barrinha, at the heart of a major agricultural area 340 kilometers (211 miles) from Sao Paulo.
Brazil’s worst drought in seven decades has fueled fires across the vast nation in recent weeks, ripping through the Amazon rainforest, leaving jaguars with burn injuries in the Pantanal wetlands, and choking major cities with smoke.
The country’s vital agricultural sector is also reeling, with harvests of sugarcane, arabica coffee, oranges and soybeans—of which Brazil is the world’s main producer and exporter—at risk.
And there is little hope of a quick turnaround, with less rain forecast in October than average.
In the country’s main sugar-producing region in the state of Sao Paulo, some 230,000 hectares of the four million sugarcane plantations in the area, have been affected to varying degrees by the fires.
Half of the damaged plantations have yet to be harvested, according to the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Union.
“Where the sugarcane is still standing, we expect the yield (in sugar) to drop by half,” said Jose Guilherme Nogueira, CEO of the Organization of Sugarcane Producers’ Associations of Brazil.
‘The soil lacks water’
Meloni had already finished his harvest but his land suffered significant damage.
“It burned where there were shoots, which were already struggling to come out because of the lack of water. Now we have to see where we will have to replant.”
In southeastern Minas Gerais, home to 70 percent of Brazilian Arabica, coffee growers are also anxiously awaiting the rains needed to encourage their shrubs to flower and form the coffee berries that will be picked next year.
“The soil lacks water. It is the worst water deficit in 40 years,” lamented Jose Marcos Magalhaes, president of Minasul, the second-largest coffee cooperative in the country.
By the end of the month, “we need rains of good intensity to hope to have a normal harvest” in 2025, he said.
Bad weather has already disrupted the 2023-2024 harvest, which is coming to an end.
In May, the state-run National Supply Company (Conab), a public body, anticipated an increase of 8.2 percent in Arabica production, but these forecasts “will probably be revised downwards”, said Renato Ribeiro, from the Center for Advanced Studies in Applied Economics at the University of Sao Paulo.
Source Link : https://phys.org/news/2024-09-brazil-farmers-fret-drought.html
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