February 6, 2012

 

Drought starves Mexican livestock, destroys crops

 

 

Millions of livestock are starving after the worst drought in Mexico left millions of acres of cropland barren, sparking worry about potential food shortages.

 

More than half of the national territory has fallen prey to the drought, with dried-up streams in northern states like Coahuila turning into cattle graves and some towns lying abandoned as people flee the drought. More than 3.7 million acres of agriculture have been lost, an area larger than Connecticut.

 

The dry weather is expected to intensify in coming months. A majority of Mexican states are expected to get between half of the usual rainfall and none at all in February and March, according to Mexico's Agriculture Ministry.

 

Citing the drought, the USDA on Thursday (Jan 2) cut its forecast for Mexican corn production for the 2011-12 crop year to 18.4 million tonnes from 20.5 million tonnes.

 

Coahuila, which borders Texas, has been especially hard hit. Even cacti in the state have withered. Thousands of corn fields lie desolate. The state, which is the country's largest producer of sorghum feed, has had to import the product from other states for the first time.

 

"The intensity of this drought surpasses the ability of government resources to address it," said Coahuila's deputy minister of rural development, Reginaldo de Luna Villarreal.

 

So far, 60,000 head of livestock have been reported dead, though many producers don't register their losses.

 

Mexico is the main supplier of cattle to the US, which imported more than 1.23 million head of cattle from Mexico last year, according to the USDA, as well as a record 142 million pounds of beef and veal in the first 11 months of the year.

 

In the past year, prices for sorghum used as feed have doubled. Increased grain costs are exacerbating the problem for livestock producers who care rushing to slaughter their animals before they die. The resulting glut of meat has slightly depressed prices, though they are still higher than a year earlier because of the livestock losses.

 

However, Mexican officials say the drought's worst effects on agriculture are expected to have peaked thanks to rising corn output in the southern part of Mexico.

 

"I don't think the drought's continuation will cause agricultural production to plummet," said Mexico's Agriculture Minister Francisco Mayorga.