The sector, which is key to exports, is recovering after a drought that traumatized the agricultural sector.
The consequences of one of the worst droughts who has experienced the Uruguay In the last 100 years they are still the talk of the town, however, the good weather conditions and the expectation of a summer without climatic outbursts generate hopes within the agricultural sector about its main crop, the soy.
According to the latest report from the non-profit association, Urupov – dedicated to research, development, production and marketing of new plant varieties – the soybean harvest is the best in the last eight years.
According to the study, the estimated area of sowing soybeans for the 2023/24 harvest is 1,343,415 hectares, an area that has been growing since 2021, being the first time that the level of 1,300,000 hectares has been exceeded. “There is agricultural potential to sow because Uruguay has exceeded the total area planted with soybeans in other years,” he said. Diego Risso, CEO of Urupov, in dialogue with Scope.
In this regard, he commented that the increase in soybean planting is due to several factors, although the decision of producers to choose soybeans depends greatly on the performance of other crops. “The explanation of why soybean planting increases from one year to the next is multifactorial. It does not depend only on soybeans, but on the profitability of other crops. sorghum dropped a lot in Uruguay this last year and the corn remained,” he explained.
A situation to overcome
The worst drought in the last 100 years in the Uruguay It still has consequences in the agricultural sector and soybeans are no exception to the rule.
According to the report of Urupov, the percentage of remotely detected chakras that present soy For the second consecutive year (54%) it decreased compared to the average estimated since 2019. This is due to possible lost and unidentified fields during the 2022/23 harvest, due to the extreme drought conditions that affected the country during that summer.
In addition to that, the ghost of a possible return of The Girl next summer. However, according to the forecasts of the National Emergency System (Sinae)the probability of a situation similar to that of the 2019-2023 period occurring is expected to be much lower and ranges between 30 and 50%.
For added peace of mind, from the Ministry of Environment They assured that they are better prepared for a possible rematch of the drought. The National Director of Waters of the Ministry of Environment, Louis Anastasiahe commented that they formed a structural work group where they were able to define what to do at each moment of the drought.
“Even if a new drought lasts three years, we are in better shape and better prepared than in the situation we recently went through,” he said.
Source: Ambito
