Leading authorities in Mexico’s horticulture sector haveurged the country’s government to take steps to alleviate the hardship beingcaused by a prolonged drought that has so far been responsible for the loss ofhundreds of thousands of hectares of crops.
According to an estimate from the Mexican National Farmers’Confederation (CNC), as much as 80 per cent of country’s land has been erodedby the lack of rain and a great deal of agricultural land is now facing thethreat of desertification.
In a press conference held earlier this week, CNC presidentCruz López Aguilar said that bean and maize production – two key staples of theMexican diet – had been particularly badly affected by the drought.
The organisation estimates that 80 per cent of the bean cropin the states of San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas, Nayarit, Durango and Chihuahua,amounting to some 650,000 tonnes, has been lost as a result of the shortage ofrainfall.
The situation is especially grave in Zacatecas, which wasthis week declared a ‘disaster zone’ by its governor, Amalia García Medina.
The governor has urged Mexico’s secretary of agriculture,Alberto Cárdenas Jiménez, to provide emergency resources to the region to easethe crisis in Zacatecas’ agriculture sector, which has been caused by thedrought.
According to La Jornada, some 77,000ha of various crops havebeen lost in the state to date, including 317,000ha of beans and maize.
