The lack of rain and high temperatures in winter create an “extremely critical” situation, they warned from the sector.
The water crisis puts the industry at risk fruit and vegetable, as alerted from the Association of Producers and Buyers of the Metropolitan Agri-Food Unit (Aprcouam), who pointed out that “a lot of production units are at risk, which are on a tightrope.”
“Some water gave respite for the situation to subsist, but the situation is extremely critical,” he said. Carbone in dialogue with Radio Uruguay, pointing out that the lack of rainy and the high temperatures in winter complicated the sector.
“Sometimes we forget because we solved the problem of water for the people in the city and we forget about what we do not see, which is the reality of water deficit that the sector has, especially here in the south of the country, which continues to have the entire fruit and vegetable production from the south”, synthesized the producer.
The president of Aprcouam He admitted that “there are some producers who have differential situations because they have irrigation wells”, but he clarified that “it is not the reality of the majority”, for which he warned that “there are a lot of productive units, family farms, with the heart in the mouth”.
The current situation and future possibilities of the sector
Regarding the current situation, Carbone held that “in the absence of water The characteristics of this winter are added with very high temperatures, with days of 30 degrees” and stated that “plants need cold for their biological process at this time of year and high temperatures are a natural alarm clock for production. Then the plant experiences the stress of returning to the cold”.
Meanwhile, in the future, he admitted: “I don’t know what will happen to next year’s production, beyond the fact that there are drought or not”. “When you plant a tree, you do it for 15 years of production. Planting one hectare of apples costs about 30 thousand dollars of investment. The production of apples, lemons, pears, plums, and peach trees is very compromised,” observed the leader.
Another point on which he focused is on the costs of farm production. “They keep going up like any neighbor in Montevideo, while agricultural inputs increased in one year between 150% and 200%,” said Carbone.
Source: Ambito
