Droughts threaten nation’s food supply in Mexico

BY VÍCTOR MAYÉN

On Sunday, Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) deputies said that the country’s food supplies may be at risk. Nearly 500,000 hectares of crops of basic grains may fail due to droughts. 

In view of this situation, Manuel Humberto Cota Jiménez, the Secretary of the Agriculture and Livestock Committee, asked President Felipe Calderón to declare as disaster areas the states that have been affected by lack of rain. He added that the federal government must also send resources immediately to respond to the emergency. 

According to Cota, the federal government’s attitude regarding this situation is regrettable.

“The federal government is not offering the necessary resources to assist the rural zones that have been damaged by this situation. The government must destine resources to the affected states, not only to the states that are holding elections,” Cota said. 

The National Meteorological Service (SMN) said that the states that have been most severely affected are: Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sonora, Sinaloa, Chihuahua, Durango, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, Jalisco and Guanajuato. 

The cold temperatures in northern Mexico earlier this year and the recent drought have devastated this region. If actions are not taken soon, Mexico’s food supplies may be endangered. 

Cota said that the drought will have a higher impact than this year’s freezing temperatures. Droughts are more serious because they can cause wildfires and death of livestock, which would cause a food crisis in Mexico.