Minister Fernando Mattos anticipated that “nothing changes”, but the impact of the drought is being analyzed and there will be definitions in the short term.
Following the announcement of the lifting of the water emergency due to the improvement in water reserves for consumption in Montevideo and the metropolitan area of Uruguay, in the government warned that the situation does not change with respect to the agricultural emergency, whose continuity or not will be defined in less than a month.
He Minister of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries, Fernando Mattos, clarified that the decree on the water emergency “It does not change at all” for the agricultural sector and specified that there is time until September 23 to define what will happen to the situation of the producers, affected by the impact of a drought unprecedented, with millions in losses.
“The water emergency refers only to measures for drinking water and consumption in the metropolitan area. It doesn’t change at all for the agricultural aspect,” he said. Mattos in a press conference and defined: “We are in agricultural emergency and runs until September 23.
However, he admitted that in the coming days there will be meetings between the actors involved to make a decision. “Let’s see what are the forecasts and the projections, and how is the reality of the reports that come from the field”, he anticipated about that definition.
Is the agricultural emergency spreading?
The chief admitted that there is “a better situation than a few months ago and the crops are very well” and it is even expected that the phenomenon of The boy bring lots of rain. However, he warned that there are regions “where there is a structural issue of lack of water”, where the aquifers were not replaced, the wells “provide little flow”.
Taking the landscape into account, Mattos did not rule out that the agricultural emergency It can be extended, although he explained that it can be done partially. “We have already applied it from the Ministry on previous occasions,” she recalled.
The measure has been in place for more than 10 months, since it was decreed by the government on October 20, 2022. The initiative contemplates loans to producers, authorized grazing on routes, expiration extensions, agreements between the MGAP and municipalities and cost reduction of the electric power, among other measures.
Source: Ambito
