MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Drought-devastated Argentina declares camp emergency

The Argentine government declared on Monday an agricultural emergency in areas affected by the worst drought to hit the country in four decades and which has extended to most of the country's farmlands.

The state of emergency will allow farmers in affected areas to defer some tax payments for one year, said President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner on making the announcement from the presidential residence in Olivos. Farmers reacted saying there was nothing extraordinary in the tax announcements which are already contemplated in Argentine legislation and complained bitterly the Argentine government is a partner of profits but absentee when the losses. Argentina, a leading world producer of soy, corn, wheat and beef, is suffering from dry conditions in much of its agricultural belt. Crop estimates are being cut as cattle die of thirst. "In the face of this hard, painful reality, the government is extending its hand to these farmers," Cabinet Chief Sergio Massa told reporters after Mrs. Kirchner announced the state of emergency. Tax deferments means farmers will not to pay some of the heaviest burdens, "which represents an effort from all Argentines, because there's no other sector which has been granted such a benefit", pointed out the Argentine president. Furthermore farmers will be exempt of the carry-license payment which is needed to transport all grains from farms to silos, from silos to processing plants, ports or other destinations. Farmers' organizations locked in political battle with the government over what they call high export taxes say they want better long-term emergency planning rather than the subsidies and other short-term benefits offered by the Kirchner administration. "So far what was announced is nothing new, it's all legally contemplated; there's no exceptional support or assistance mechanism", said the powerful Argentine Rural Society, SRA. "Basically it's a step forward but won't be at all definitive", added SRA spokesperson. Eduardo Buzzi from the Agrarian Federation was more caustic, "nothing extraordinary; common sense and bill 22.913 which contemplates fiscal emergency for the camp". He insisted that the carry-license exemption is "peanuts" compared to the 5 billion US dollars the camp has paid in export taxes. "The difference is so abysmal (5 to 5 billion) that the government seems to be poking fun at us or punishing us", underlined Buzzi. The corn planting season is just ending, but output in the current crop cycle could fall up to 40% from the last harvest, the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange has forecast. The exchange on Friday cut its estimate for Argentina's 2008/09 soy plantings to 17.9 million hectares (44.2 million acres) from 18.2 million hectares (45.0 million acres) previously, citing the drought.