Can a disaster be avoided in the face of an atmospheric phenomenon of great magnitude?

It is the question that surrounds after knowing the devastating consequences that the announced passage of the frontal system through Chile has caused, which according to the Federation of Fruit Producers (Fedefruta) had the dimension of an “agricultural catastrophe”, and that already reaches losses due to USD 150 million.

The answers are varied, from those who affirm that it is possible to anticipate natural phenomena, but not leave unscathed, to those who maintain that with innovation and science everything is possible. Most agree that structural changes must be made in agricultural activity, and there is almost unanimity that the answer may lie in the development and good use of technology.

We asked Luis Luchsinger, postharvest specialist and experienced connoisseur of the whole fruit industry, national and international.

• What do you think should be the changes in the industry to avoid or alleviate the repetition of situations like the one experienced?
• The way forward is via protected agriculture, using plastic covers on crops. On the other hand, the use of insurance against weather events will be a requirement.
• In a situation of notice of several days in advance - as was the case - what would you have advised the producers who were in harvest to avoid damage to the fruit?
• Harvesting as much fruit as possible, to save as much as possible. For this, it is necessary to have rapid cooling systems and a greater storage capacity for raw materials.
• If the fruit has already been affected, what are the most appropriate treatment measures or actions to recover it commercially?
• Dry the fruit with turbo foggers and wait for the cracks to appear. An adequate gasification chamber with SO2 and optimal management of the cold chain are key.

As we can see, there is an opinion on the issue, and no one is resigned to the unforeseen events of nature, less in an industry as technologized as the fruit industry.

An announced threat ...

On the other hand, for decades scientists have been warning that climate change multiplies and will multiply these episodes of intense rains. It has been proven through multiple studies, and in different regions of the planet, that due to the accumulation of greenhouse gases, episodes of heavy rainfall have increased, causing floods, serious damage and disasters, such as the one that occurred in Chile at the end of January, in the middle of summer, in an unprecedented episode in the last 80 years in the country.

The academic from the University of Santiago de Chile (Usach), Raúl Cordero, affirms that climate change makes extreme events more frequent "and the intense rains that we have just had, absolutely anomalous for the month of January, are a clear example" .

"Due to the increasingly high temperatures associated with climate change, in recent years summer precipitation has been mostly rain, and not snow as in the past," he explains.

In 2020, Paulina Aldunce, an academic at the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and the Center for Climate and Resilience Science (CR)2 of the University of Chile, assured that “with climate change all the variables have been exacerbated and are going away.” to continue exacerbating, therefore, the changes are going to be even greater," adding:

"It is projected that we are going to have more drought, we are going to have more heat waves, a sustained increase in temperatures, have more storm surges, more extreme rains, more severe and frequent, causing floods, landslides..."

It is a development issue that is being addressed internationally, so the discussion will continue, and will surely cross everything that has to do with the control of CO2 emissions, public policies, adequate choice of crops or varieties, plant improvement, and on everything, planning and behavior of the industry, among other topics.