Producers from La Plata suffer from the drought and believe that this lack of water will last a long time / Web
Greater La Plata, one of the most important fruit and vegetable territories in the Province and the country, suffers millions in losses due to the prolonged drought that plagues the main productive areas of agriculture, and complicates the projections of planting and production of local products so emblematic such as the tomato from La Plata and the artichokes, among many other crops, at the same time that it also generates inconveniences in the livestock sector.
This is how different producers from the agro-industrial sector revealed them to this newspaper, who told that they had to modify all their work plans due to the calamitous lack of water that affects the richest area of the country.
The Buenos Aires government made official yesterday the declaration of agricultural emergency due to drought in the districts of La Plata, General Madariaga, Leandro N Alem, Florentino Ameghino, Balcarce, Guaminí, Laprida, Nueve de Julio, Pila, General Las Heras and San Antonio de Areco, through decree 2105/2022.
Producers in the area affirm that not only are their crops suffering now, but the forecasts predict “an extreme summer”, with high temperatures and rains that will not be enough to save local productions such as lettuce, beets, chard, spinach, vegetables, they explain.
The horticultural belt of La Plata is the largest in the country. It has a great diversity of primary productions such as horticulture and floriculture, among others, and has an area of 5,400 hectares of greenhouses (2016/2017 data).
It is the main supplier of fresh vegetables to the AMBA, producing more than 72% of the vegetables sold in the Central Market of Buenos Aires. According to the Hortiflorícola Census (2005) of the province of Buenos Aires, 1,452 productive units were registered, with 78% dedicated to horticulture.
The La Plata Horticultural Cord or Belt (CHP) is a productive strip located in the peri-urban area of the city of La Plata, the largest in the country, where more than 72 types of vegetables are produced that feed more than 14 million people in the suburbs. Buenos Aires and other regions. According to the last horticultural provincial Census of 2005, it is estimated that there are around 1,100 producers there, with 85% residing in the farms.
The decision to declare an emergency to local agriculture was due to an adverse natural phenomenon of an extraordinary nature. The measure is based on the critical situation that rural farms in those districts are going through.
It was indicated in the recitals of the regulation that the situation has been timely evaluated by the specific technical area of the Ministry of Agrarian Development, through meteorological information (statistical and satellite), field checks, and satellite images.
Likewise, it was ruled by the respective local Agricultural Emergency Commissions on the magnitude of the damages suffered in production or production capacity since the climatic phenomenon, due to its characteristics and magnitude, specifically affects producers.
The benefits that they will have will be “the exemption from payment of the Rural Real Estate tax, corresponding to the property destined to the development of the aforementioned activity, in proportion to the percentage of the affectation of the agricultural exploitation reached by the declaration of Agricultural Disaster”.
In this regard, the United Nations Organization (UN) revealed that all regions of the world suffered droughts in 2021, while the Río de la Plata has suffered a “persistent drought” since 2019, according to a report published this week.
The study also reveals that almost 3,600 million people have “inadequate” access to fresh water for at least one month a year, a figure that could exceed 5,000 million in 2050. The data is taken from the annual report carried out by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), an agency of the United Nations.
The Secretary General of the WMO, Petteri Taalas, emphasized the different manifestations of climate change: “The impacts of climate change tend to manifest themselves through water, with more intense and frequent droughts, more extreme floods, more irregular seasonal rains and the accelerating melting of glaciers, and cascading effects on economies, ecosystems and all aspects of our daily lives.
