In the midst of a global situation that puts food security at risk, the world looks to America as an alternative for survival, but finds that the Southern Cone of the continent, one of the areas with the most fertile fields, is dry.

The American Southern Cone, which has traditionally been a world pantry for both cereals and meat, is being shaken by a drought that, although it coincides with the current southern summer, experts fear it will spread due to climate change.

The disparity of climatic cycles and the hand of man can cause the drought to definitively take hold of the region, which would deepen the crisis, just at a time when the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have threatened the world food chain .

Drought covers Argentina
The clearly visible imprint of dry and almost arid lands can be seen in much of the 2.8 million square kilometers of Argentina, from Jujuy and Mesopotamia to Tierra del Fuego.

Changes in cycle patterns such as El Niño and La Niña, as well as "aggressive deforestation" caused by human beings, are the main causes of this phenomenon, according to Darío Soto-Abril, executive director of the World Water Association. (GWP).

“(The drought) affects not only the subsistence of those who produce, but also the food insecurity of everyone in the region, because we do not have access to the products that are produced in Argentina (…). There is less production and the scarcity is going to contribute to an inflation that the region is experiencing due to global causes”, he affirms.

The drought is responsible for the great losses of the Argentine agricultural sector, which amounted to US$ 2.930 million during the summer of last year, according to a report by the Rosario Stock Exchange.

In that same period, the soybean and corn harvest forecast fell by 9 million and 8 million tons, respectively, in this country, one of the world's largest soybean producers.

This reduction in production will have an estimated impact of US$4.800 billion on the Argentine economy as a whole, equivalent to 1% of the country's potential Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which has been experiencing serious macroeconomic imbalances since mid-2018.

The lack of water in the soil conditions the production and quality of crops, especially rice, which requires large amounts of water resources.

“In rice, since what is eaten is the grain that is harvested, all these conditions have a direct effect on the quality, so it is expected that not only will there be fewer kilos, but the quality is probably not ideal,” said the agricultural engineer María Inés Pachecoy, from the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA).

According to INTA itself, in Argentina there are almost two million hectares of crops with "severe damage" in the northeastern part of the country.

Chile, a hemispheric tragedy
According to what was reported by the local Greenpeace office, Chile is the country most affected by drought in the Western Hemisphere and 76% of its territory is affected by lack of water.

On March 14, the alarms went off again when the newly inaugurated president, Gabriel Boric, said that water rationing in three neighborhoods of Santiago, the country's capital, is not ruled out.

And the outlook tends to get worse: according to the Chilean Meteorological Directorate (DMC), 2021 was the fourth driest year since there are records and all regions presented a 50% deficit in rainfall, especially those in the central zone, that welcomes Santiago.

Experts also say that a third consecutive year could be presented with the phenomenon of La Niña.

But apart from mere climatic factors, criteria such as the ownership of water, which is 80% in private hands, mainly large agricultural, mining and energy companies, also affect this crisis.

"The great challenge that remains for us is to stop understanding water as a right of private use and move towards its establishment as a common good that must be fully protected," said Estefanía González, coordinator of Campaigns at Greenpeace, in a document from the NGO on the recent reform of the Water Code.

Paraguay: with collapsed soybeans and affected by fires

Paraguay is the sixth world producer of soybeans and the third largest exporter, according to figures from last January from the United States Department of Agriculture, but the drought, as well as the consequent fires, threatens to erase the South American country from those statistics.

Paraguay shows a decrease of 68.7% in its commercial production of this oilseed in the 2021-2022 harvest.

The Paraguayan Chamber of Exporters and Traders of Cereals and Oilseeds (Capeco) forecasts a production of 2.970.000 tons compared to 9.518.600 tons in 2020-2021.

But Jorge Meza, representative in the country of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), explained that this situation is not new, since it began with some "anomalies" in 2018 until 2019 confirmed as a full-fledged drought.

The prolonged drought has been felt not only in extensive agro-export agriculture, but also in family farming, with losses that the authorities estimate, according to Meza, in the order of 65% and that reaches 80% and up to 100% in various areas. %.