The Secretary of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Juan José Bahillo, pointed out that “a particularly tense and critical situation” is being experienced due to the persistence of the drought, he promised to “accompany and help the productive sector through this unfavorable circumstance” and estimated that the Wheat production will be around 16 million tons, a volume that to date will allow “responding to the demand of the external and domestic sectors.”
“We are experiencing a particularly tense and critical situation for the third consecutive year in terms of humidity restrictions and anomalies in the rainfall regime, which has an impact on the state of the crops and their projection”said Bahillo after the presentation of a report on the Weather Outlook 2022/23 carried out by the technicians of the agricultural portfolio and the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA).
According to the head of the Agricultural Emergencies and Disasters Monitoring Office, María de Estrada, the drought affects some 140 million hectares, of which seven are in a “severe” drought condition, particularly in the provinces of Buenos Aires, Santa Fe and Entre Rios.
“We do not rule out any measure; it will be our obligation and responsibility to accompany and help the productive sector to navigate this unfavorable circumstance”
Although he did not consider the situation a “catastrophe”, Bahillo remarked that it is to “continue and pay attention, especially since we come from a stress of the last three years that worsened from this winter”.
“The perspective is that the next quarter continues under similar conditions and it can only be recovered from the first quarter of next year, tending towards normality in the second quarter of next year,” he added.
According to Bahillo, “we must, together with other sectors, continue evaluating the damage and loss to see what action we can take, because nothing replaces the rain.”
“We do not rule out any measure; it will be our obligation and responsibility to accompany and help the productive sector through this unfavorable circumstance,” the official said.
On the other hand, he estimated that wheat production will be around 16 million tons, a volume that to date will allow “responding to the demand of the external and domestic sectors.”
In this way, the new projection places the current wheat campaign six million tons below the previous cycle, when just over 22 million tons were obtained.
“For now we can respond to the demand of the foreign and domestic sectors” with the expected volume, assured Bahillo, who reported that the export sector asked the Government “to authorize an extension of shipments, an issue that we see as feasible, since it is a measure that can help to plan the output of the cereal and simultaneously contemplate the supply of the internal market”.
Regarding the work carried out by INTA and the Ministry of Agriculture, he considered it “an important input when setting policies and actions to mitigate the effects of the drought and also for the different actors involved in the productive sector.”
For Bahillo, this information helps “those who make decisions every day so that they can optimize resources, make better use of them and so that they can see and analyze what tools they have until they go through this most critical situation, which is beginning to a better horizon from the second quarter of next year”.
“The perspective is that the next quarter continues under similar conditions and it can only be recovered from the first quarter of next year, tending towards normality in the second quarter of next year”
On Tuesday, the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, announced the creation of a working table to evaluate alternatives to the drought situation that affects the agricultural sectorand confirmed the implementation of a direct subsidy scheme of up to $20,000 per hectare for small and medium soybean and corn producers to finance part of the purchase of seeds and fertilizers.
Specialists María de Estrada, Eduardo Basile, Adriana Basualdo, Natalia Gattinoni, Pablo Mércuri and Manuel Méndez participated in the presentation, held this afternoon at the Microcinema of the agricultural portfolio.
