Because of the scarcity of rain in the region known as the Dry Corridor, producers in the country estimate that in the first cycle of the year has lost about 30% of corn crops and 35% of beans.
Directors of the Union of Agricultural Producers of Nicaragua (Upanic) explained that for the so-called "first production", Estelí lost 50% of the bean crop, and in Nueva Segovia fell between 40% and 50%.
The drought that affected in 2014 has worsened this year, threatening shortages of basic foodstuffs.
An article on Nacion.com reports that the director of Agricultural Extension of the Ministry of Agriculture of Costa Rica, Felipe Arguedas said "... We are very concerned because two years of drought are joined together; we believe that 2015 will be worse than 1997, which was the driest year recorded so far."
Drought was the main factor behind the drop of 49% in exports for 2014 of rice, beans and corn, compared to the previous year.
At the end of 2014 $6.5 billion in exports of grains were reported, ie, $6.4 million less than the $12.9 million recorded in 2013. Drought damaged about "... 2.6 million hundredweight of white corn and 86.107 hundredweight of red beans in the 2014 harvest."
To compensate for the reduction in local production, the government plans to allocate $8.8 million for the purchase of 39,000 hundredweight of beans and 230,000 hundredweight of corn.
In the period from January to August 2014, the government imported maize from the United States and Mexico, and in the case of beans, 60% was purchased from the US, 20.3% from Canada, 11.4% from China, 6.7% from Nicaragua and the rest 1.5% from Argentina.
Due to a reduction of local production because of drought, the government has authorized, for the second half of the year, an increase in tax-free imports of red beans, rice and corn.
In the case of red beans, an additional 10,000 tons has been approved on top of the 20,000 authorized in June, while for rice the quantities will be defined in the coming days.
Lack of rains could affect corn and bean harvests, explained Salvadoran farmers.
The rainy season has started one month later, and the official estimation is that rains will be 30% below the usual. This will take its toll over the country’s production, reported the Agriculture Ministry.
“All in all, Salvadoran agricultural production could shrink around 2.4 million quintals, mostly due to lack of rain, caused by the El Niño phenomena.