Chilean Minister of Agriculture declares agricultural emergency in Biobío and Ñuble

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Chilean Minister of Agriculture, María Emilia Undurraga, decreed this Tuesday for the southern regions of Biobío and Ñuble, a state of agricultural emergency as a result of the intense drought that the country has been experiencing for years.

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Undurraga said that together with the Regional Presidential Delegation of Ñuble and the Seremía de Agricultura of the region “we declared the 21 communes of Ñuble with an agricultural emergency due to water deficit, in order to support the families who live in the countryside and inhabit the rural areas that have been affected by the drought that has hit Chile.”

The Minister specified that this situation is the result of climate change and that fires and drought are two sides of the same coin. She also said that various resources are being activated to face this situation in the short, medium and long term in the 33 communes of the Biobío Region.

The regions of Coquimbo, Valparaíso, Maule, O’Higgins, Los Lagos and part of the Metropolitan Region, where the capital is located, are under this condition.

According to authorized sources, more than 5 million people are affected by water scarcity, which represents almost 30 percent of Chile’s population and includes the inhabitants of 135 communes (municipalities) of the nation’s 345.

The United Nations has stated that Chile meets seven of the nine criteria for vulnerability to climate change, but the outlook is not improving as drought persists.