Argentina: Proclamation of agricultural state of emergency called for in Buenos Aires and Entre Ríos

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – While the fields of the province of Buenos Aires, as in other districts of the country, are undergoing severe, productive damages due to a severe drought, the coalition of Juntos por el Cambio asked Governor Axel Kicillof to declare an Agricultural Emergency or Disaster in the province and “to intervene the Ministry of Agricultural Development to adopt special measures to support the producers affected by the drought”.

The province of Santa Fe has already taken this path, and Governor Omar Perotti has called a commission meeting for today.

In a draft declaration presented by the Buenos Aires legislator Luciano Bugallo, of the Civic Coalition, with the support of Juntos el Cambio, it was expressed that “the drought is hitting hard in the Buenos Aires countryside, generating irrecoverable losses and complications in the harvest, generating anguish and despair in the Buenos Aires producers, overwhelmed by the poor yields, who in addition to the lack of rain and the high temperatures, must deal with the rise in the prices of inputs”.

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Bugallo, in a statement, said that “despite the rains recorded in the last hours, more than 70% of the rural core zone has been severely affected by the lack of rainfall, the low water level of rivers and the intense heatwave that devastated the province.

These extreme weather conditions hit the countryside hard, generating irrecoverable losses and complications in the harvest, which triggered the claim of the rural union entities.”

“According to the actors of the sector, the current critical situation has similarities with the hydric crisis of the 2017/2018 campaign, which left millionaire losses to the field (and to the Treasury) and was one of the factors that contributed to the shortage of dollars and the exchange run started at the end of the first quarter of 2018.

A similar scenario could be repeated this year, with the aggravating factor that the current context is profoundly worse than at that time,” Bugallo added.

In this sense, the legislator questioned: “It is regrettable that we have to be begging the provincial State to declare an agricultural emergency when the producers of Buenos Aires when between the Nation, province and municipalities, take away 75% of the gross value of production, while the remaining 25% is used to buy inputs, invest in machinery, pay salaries and rents. If the farm could produce with the same tax burden as the rest of the Argentine companies, we could do without the State 100%, without the need to go around begging for what belongs to us”.

For Bugallo, “it is not necessary for the Legislature to sanction a declaration of emergency, since Law 10.390 grants the necessary powers to the Minister of Agrarian Development to be able to take measures of this type and, for once, help the countryside, instead of plundering it as they always do”.

“With this unfortunate drought, not only the productive sector is going to be hit, but also and above all, the wallet of the National State, which shows how dependent we are on the agricultural economy”, concluded Bugallo.

SIMILAR SITUATION IN ENTRE RÍOS

For 20 days, the Argentine Rural Society (SRA), Entre Ríos district, has been demanding the Declaration of Agricultural Emergency and Disaster from the provincial government. “Our province was on fire until last night, with losses of all kinds and shocking.

However, this time we did not receive any contact from the Minister of Production Juan José Bahillo, none”, said to LA NACION, Juan Diego Etchevehere, delegate of the entity in Entre Ríos.