Sergio Massa won 10 days.
And he hopes that the rains forecast for the remainder of January will help him steer the relationship with the countryside, in the context of the severe drought that is affecting all the agricultural regions of the country.
With the commitment of an agenda of meetings for the next week, the Minister of Economy opened a dialogue channel with the Liaison Table, which had been postponed "for at least a month", since the ruralistas requested a high-level meeting to obtain substantive solutions after meetings with second-line officials and "partial announcements."
Now, the leader of the Renovation Front is fully involved and has the challenge of reaching comprehensive measures that alleviate the countryside and do not compromise the fragile macroeconomic situation, highly dependent on the resources generated by agro-industrial activity.
And that this year they would be scarce.
According to the ruralistas, the climate crisis will result in losses of US$15,000 million and will have effects on all of society in the coming months.
The Minister of Economy summoned the ruralistas convinced that in February the scenario will change.
The meteorological perspectives that INTA informed you refer to the end of the Niña phenomenon after three years, precisely as of February.
For this reason, the date of the first day of that month seems almost like a magical bet, as if it were a "D-Day".
In general, specialists agree that a Neutral phase will begin before the end of autumn and a Niño stage will arrive in spring, with normal, if not abundant, levels of rainfall.
From the field they do not dismiss these weather forecasts, but they warn that the rains will arrive late.
They calculate losses of 50% in the wheat harvest that has just concluded and describe that the soybean and corn crops in progress already express irrecoverable yield losses.
To the impact on grain production, the agro-industrial sector that generates the most dollars in exports, withholdings and GDP, we must add more uncertain but very forceful losses also on meat and dairy farming.
Within this framework, the diagnosis of the situation is broadly shared.
And now it will be necessary to achieve fine tuning to identify needs, with a balance between what is urgent and what is important.
In this sense, Massa committed to a phrase copyrighted by Cristina Kirchner.
At the beginning of her disagreement with the management of the Government, the vice president publicly asked President Alberto Fernández to "use the pen" to govern.
Now the Minister of Economy used the same idea to take charge of managing the problems of the countryside with an impact on the entire economy.
It will not be easy for you, because going from diagnosis to solutions is complicated in such a serious and complex situation.
"We cannot decree that it rain, we are not to blame for the drought," said Ignacio De Mendiguren, Secretary of Production, and one of the officials close to Massa, who accompanied him at the meeting.
And he focused the need for assistance on "small producers", in line with the latest segmented aid measures implemented by the Government in agricultural policy.
The head of the AFIP, Carlos Castagneto (who answers to Cristina Kirchner) relativized the situation in the field.
He said that it is "one more of the sectors that must be attended by the Government."
Massa will have to define within the wide spectrum of visions on the field that coexist in the Frente de Todos.
And he is betting that the productive surveys by zones and activities, plus climate relief forecasts, do not require him to make contributions that will exacerbate the short-term scenario suffered by fiscal accounts.
The Liaison Table is not so optimistic about that.
They argue that “there are many producers who already have negative economic results and will not be able to pay taxes and a good part of the financing they took to dynamize the productive wheel.
The expectation of the ruralistas is that farmers, ranchers and other actors in the regional economies be supported so that they can reach the Niño stage with the least possible level of damage. Massa also dreams of reaching spring in better conditions.
Perhaps that will help them find consensual solutions.
look too
The field anticipates losses of 15,000 million dollars due to the drought and Sergio Massa promised the Liaison Desk a package of measures for February 1
The Liaison Table put the points on Massa
