The drought that affected a large part of the agricultural area over the past year, combined with the late frosts and the heat wavesthey generated considerable losses in the 2022/23 campaign in the legume cropswith production losses that go up to 90% in the case of lentilsaccording to official statistics.
The productive loss that evidenced the peas, lentils and chickpeas do not jeopardize domestic supplygiven that local consumption is low and much of the production, with the exception of lentils, is destined for export.
In this regard, the director of the Arroyo Seco Extension Agency of the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA) and specialist in legumes, Gabriel Prieto, said that “the drought and low temperatures of the 2022/23 campaign were devastating for the three species”.
What were the most affected legumes?
The most affected crops due to inclement weather those that are produced in the Pampean Regionlike the chickpeas and the lentils. In the case of peas, production had a retraction of 79.86% going from 296,957 tons obtained in the 2021/22 campaign compared to the 59,813 tons registered in the current production cycle, indicated the Undersecretary of Agricultural Markets of the Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries.
On the side of the lentils, the blow was even strongergiven that the losses between last season and this one were almost total, falling by 91.37% after going from harvesting 72,318 tons in 2021/22 to 6,244 tons in November of last year, when the few lots that remained standing were collected.
As for the chickpeawhich is cultivated in areas of Córdoba, Santiago del Estero and northern Argentine provinces, the affectation was minoralthough of consideration, since fell 35.42% and it went from threshing 102,099 tons in the previous season to 65,934 tons.
In the case of beanin all its varieties, the harvest is just taking place in the northand although from Agriculture they estimate a production of 750,000 tons, a volume in line with what was obtained last season, in the private sector they assumed that the drop in yields due to the drought would be around 30%.
According to official data, Peas were the crop that suffered the worst drop in terms of shipments abroad: Between January and April of this year, shipments totaled 4,635 tons for US$2.3 million, while in the same period of 2022, 70,473 tons were shipped for US$27.5 million.
Source: Ambito
