The shortage of water to be able to irrigate their crops has been hitting thousands of farmers in the region hard. Piura. Among them, the lemon producers who, due to this problem, the citrus fruit has not been developing to its normal size and has been falling; in addition, its price has decreased by almost 50 percent. Likewise, rice plantations are drying up, as are banana and other crops.
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Some of the most affected are the lemon farmers in the Cieneguillo Norte valley in the province of Sullana, who for weeks and because water does not reach their plots have seen how the lemon does not grow and falls, thereby losing thousands of soles, they already indicate that with this production they support their families. They depend on the Daniel Escobar channel.
“Because we don’t put water on the plants, because there isn’t any, the lemon doesn’t grow and is sucked in, it becomes small and starts to fall. We are collecting a lot of lemon that is no longer useful. The flower also falls off and the plants begin to shed their leaves and the leaves remain like sticks, just the stem. These are losses for us, because we live off of this,” said farmer Digna Sandoval Castro, in Cieneguillo Norte.
While the lemon producer, Ely Acha López, explained that, because the lemon does not grow due to the lack of water and remains small, it has been affecting them economically, since this citrus is sent to Lima. “The lemon stays small, it doesn’t grow and so they don’t receive it in Lima where we send it. “We are losing a lot of money,” he said.
“We sold each bag for 100 soles, but now since it is small due to the lack of water, we are selling it for between 50 to 60 soles. We are losing half. And if the water shortage continues, all the lemon will be lost. We need water for our plots,” added Acha, very concerned.
While the farmers of the Lágrimas de Curumuy sector, in Medio Piura, are also going through a bad time.
“We ask the authorities to support us so we can save our banana, mango, lemon and other rice crops. We are doing our best to pump water to the fields, but it is no longer enough because the ponds are drying up. We ask for support with machinery to dig wells,” said farmer Segundo Timaná Maza.
He added that all of them, along with their families, live from agriculture. “We are very worried, since we have few resources left to save some of our crops,” he said and hopes for urgent help from the authorities.
Meanwhile, yesterday morning, the drinking water service was restored with low pressure and less quantity, only in some sectors of Piura. From very early on, mothers and fathers had to go out to the front of their houses in the Piura fence to fill their containers with this vital liquid element. They complained that the tankers with water do not come to supply them and only the vendors do so. In addition, they hope that they will not collect the receipts as they reported.
MILLIONAIRE LOSSES
The president of the Piura Chamber of Commerce, Mateo Gómez, indicated that the water crisis in the Piura region would generate losses of up to 1.3 billion soles.
He explained that agro-export will be one of the most affected sectors. Furthermore, the crops that are most at risk due to lack of water are lemons, mangoes and organic bananas. Given this, farmers are forced to harvest fruits ahead of time, affecting the quality of exported products.
“The crisis could also mean the loss of up to 60,000 jobs, many of them formal and occupied by women, which is a serious blow to the region’s economy. “Producers are removing the mango early to prevent water stress from further damaging the crop,” said Mateo Gómez, who added that 70% of the planted area, which is 100,000 hectares, are at risk due to the lack of water that has been passing through the Piura region.
