According to the Multi-sectorial Commission in Charge of the National Study of the El Niño and La Niña Phenomenons, the La Niña phenomenon - whose characteristics are the cooling of the waters of the sea and the presence of rains in the mountains and jungle - has begun its decline stage. However, in Piura, agriculture authorities said that this climatic event had caused havoc on crops.
Mario Laberry, the regional director of Agriculture of Piura, said that the coastal La Niña affected 16 thousand hectares of Kent mango for export in the valley of San Lorenzo and in the Upper Piura, as well as 4,200 hectares of rice in the Lower Piura valley, and 16 thousand hectares of lemons in this region. In total, 36,200 hectares have been affected by this weather event.
"The mango had an extraordinary flowering but, due to the cold, it was attacked by several pests, such as odium. The farmers, who had been affected by the coastal El Niño, had no money to buy fungicides. There were a lot of reports of premature fall of the fruit and internal texture issues in mangoes, which affected 16 thousand hectares of Kent mango for export," said Laberry.
The sector expected to export 6 thousand containers of mangoes this year. Each container has 20 tons. However, up until that fortnight in March, Piura had only exported 1,200 containers. "We will harvest a maximum of 4 thousand containers up until March. We'll lose 2 thousand containers that won't be harvested because of the coastal La Niña," said Laberry.
Source: elcomercio.pe