The El Niño phenomenon has been present since last year in our territory, leaving behind intense rainfall, which will vary during 2024, when La Niña arrives bringing with it a decrease in rain, increasing the megadrought that has been accumulating for some time. several years.
The dean of the Faculty of Agrarian Sciences of the University of Talca, Gonzalo Díaz Ulloa, explained that the problem is not only the decrease in rainfall, since, as long as the El Niño phenomenon continues in the territory, “it will produce rains in times that are not traditional, affecting crops and causing damage to crops related to excess water.”
In that sense, the professor highlighted that, “for a farmer it is much better to be informed about these issues. This way he can make decisions in advance and be prepared. That is why it is important to listen to what the Ministry of Agriculture and the institutions that are linked to the climate say, to know how to cope with a season that can be difficult from a water point of view, as well as other atmospheric phenomena, for example, the frosts that can affect agricultural production.”
Meanwhile Patricio González Colville, agroclimatologist at UTalca, indicated that a date cannot be specified for the beginning of the La Niña phenomenon, “but it is most likely that this event will begin in June of this year, which would leave us the “Middle of winter without precipitation or with little rain and we would also have late frosts.”
When asked about the impact that the La Niña phenomenon will have in Chile, academic González Colville highlighted that “in our country, major droughts are associated with this anticyclonic blockade, a product of La Niña, and that, unlike the La Niña phenomenon, El Niño can even last up to 3 continuous years, as happened between 2020 and 2023.”
“It is a serious phenomenon for agriculture, because the lack of water and the lack of snow force plantations to be rationalized, crops have less water, the efficiency of reservoirs must be better managed and normally there are agricultural losses or reduction of cultivated hectares. , because this element is not enough,” he concluded.
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