MONTEVIDEO, (Xinhua) – The President of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, proposed on Tuesday that irrigation be a State policy, at a time when the country is suffering the worst drought in several decades.
“Perhaps the next State policy is an irrigation policy,” said the president during the opening of the 26th edition of the Expoactiva Nacional, the largest exhibition of agricultural machinery, held in the department of Soriano (west) while regretting that “These droughts are going to be more and more present.”
Faced with this climate scenario, Lacalle explained that, in a context of more frequent droughts, if irrigation ceases to be strictly treated by the National Administration of Electric Power Plants and Transmissions or the Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries and becomes State policy , with an acceptable insurance policy and plans in place, will be “another face with which we will look at the process.”
According to the latest estimate of the Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries portfolio, the water deficit has caused losses in the productive sector of 1,800 million dollars.
The Ministry declared an agricultural emergency in October, for the third consecutive year, although for the first time in years it affects the entire national territory.
Uruguayan president proposes irrigation policy amid severe drought – La Nación
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