Severe drought likely to persist in central Brazil
29-Jul-2024 01:24 PM
Sorriso. Latin American country - The weather in the central region of Brazil has remained dry for a long time and the drought crisis is not likely to go away in the near future. Brazil's National Meteorological Service (INMET) has issued an alert that drought conditions will persist during the current week.
It is worth mentioning that the last good rainfall in central Brazil was in the third week of April. The humidity there has also decreased to between 12 and 20 percent. This not only has the potential to damage some agricultural and plantation crops but has also increased the possibility of forest fires.
The states for which the Meteorological Department has issued an alert of drought conditions include top producing provinces like Sao Paulo, Mato Grosso do Sul, Goias, Rondonia and Mato Grosso moving northwards from North Parana.
Similarly, the Eastern Amazon region has also been put on alert under the area of low humidity up to 20 percent.
According to the Meteorological Department, there was no rain in central Brazil during the month of July while the temperature remained above normal level. Due to this, the soil of the fields has completely dried up.
Sao Paulo is the most important sugarcane and sugar producing province in Brazil. There, the possibility of damage to the sugarcane crop is increasing due to severe heat and lack of rain. Although usually the weather remains dry and hot in central Brazil from May to August, but this time the situation looks worse.
The temperature is much higher than normal while the rainfall has been much less than normal. From September, vigorous cultivation of soybean and maize is going to start there.
If the month of August remains dry and hot, then farmers may have to struggle hard for early sowing.
In Brazil's most important agricultural producing province - Mato Grosso, farmers have been allowed to sow soybean from September 1 instead of September 15, while the Safrinha maize crop is being harvested there. The rain in August will prove to be very important for the sowing of the next crops there.