Farmers in Alentejo are worried about losing crops
Farmers who months ago were bemoaning the lack of rain, are now lamenting its excess.
The recent heavy rains – rains that even in the fairly recent past characterised Portugal’s winters – are threatening to wipe out crops, particularly in the Alentejo, where rainfall in the last few weeks has been ‘spectacular’.
With dams like Santa Clara at dead level for years, and now finally recovering – and Bravura, in the western Algarve, also turning a corner towards plenty, crops in the soil are not anything like as well.
Farmers on the Costa Vicentina are already talking about lost crops of potatoes, inundated strawberry plants; now in Serra do São Mamede (Portalegre), reports are coming of producers seriously worried that their work will all be going to waste.
SIC Notícias describes “machines unable to work” because of saturated ground: everyone is waiting for a let up in the rain – even the cattle, whose pastures will certainly be excellent in the spring, but right now, many of them are underwater, or waterlogged.
“After a very dry December there was nothing to suggest a situation” like the one the country has experienced in recent weeks, says SIC.
“Just in the first two weeks of March, three times more rain than usual fell in the Alentejo” – proving that one can indeed have too much of a good thing. ND
