Last year, when I had the opportunity to go to Brazil, I spent the first days in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. It’s in the Southern part of Brazil, still many hours from the ports along the ocean. While there, I saw some of the lushest regions of agriculture production., However, many of these farms are up on plateaus. The rest of the state has beautiful rivers and valleys covered in lush green trees and vegetation. It was a beautiful area that I would love to return to someday. However, right now the scenery has been anything but picturesque.
Like every other region of the world, Mother Nature is in charge. Rio Grande do Sul is discovering that very painfully right now. As they are trying to go through their second cropping season, they are being faced with catastrophic flooding.
Joanna Colussi is a Post Doctoral Research Associate in Agricultural Economics and a native of the state. She recently made a trip with students to her native home and saw the destruction and heartbreak firsthand. The flooding has changed or claimed thousands of lives.
Rio Grande Do Sul grows a large portion of the country’s soybeans, and the destruction of many fields that aren’t on plateaus will have a bad effect on the country.
From an ag standpoint, the floods could not have come at a worse time.
Colussi also says the losses in rice will reduce the national production by 20 percent. The flooding is expected to have a smaller impact on corn because farmers in Rio Grande do Sul typically don’t plant a second corn crop because of the weather.
