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- 15/09/2009 02:00
PANAMA. The el Niño is having serious effects on agricultural production throughout the country, particuarly on rice production in Chir...
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Agrega La Estrella en Google ↗️PANAMA. The el Niño is having serious effects on agricultural production throughout the country, particuarly on rice production in Chiriqui.
“Fields where we were expecting to get 120-110 hundredweight are now giving a paltry 80 or 90 hundredweight,” said the executive secretary of the Rice and Basic Grains Producers of Chiriqui (APACH), Carlos Santanach.
In addition, due to the lack of rains, some growers have decided not to plant their fields with a second crop.
This second sowing is due to finish in the middle of September and only 1,000 of the projected 5,000 hectares have been sown.
According to the Electrical Transmission Company (ETESA), this year’s El Niño is expected to be more intense than anticipated and it is thought that in some provinces, such as Los Santos, the dry season may start at the beginning of November. This will principally affect rice, corn and beef production.
However, the President of the Maize and Sorghum Producers Association, Valentin Dominguez, said that they will continue to sow as planned and that already six out of the projected 11,000 hectares is in the soil.
He said of more concern to his members is the fact that the Farmers Marketing Institute (IMA) has still not paid the $1.5 million it owes to farmers and the Farmers Insurance Institute owes another $430,000 for the last harvest.
It is more likely that the government will have a negative affect on the sowing of more crops, not el Niño, he said.
Meanwhile, in Los Santos, the Ministry of Farming Development is trying to identify alternative sources of water in areas where the lack of rains are already causing problems.
Las Guabas, Villa Lourdes, El Cedro and El Corazon in the center of the Azueros peninsula have still not recovered from last year’s drought which dried up mayn streams and caused the deaths of more than 700 cattle from starvation and lack of water.
Meanwhile government plans to reassign Special Compensation and Interest Funds from the agricultural to the mortgage sector have farming representatives nervous that the Agricultural Development Bank may no longer have sufficient funds to loan out to farmers affected by the el niño and low market prices.
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