The latest tropical storms to hit Mexico have caused a disaster in the Yucatan countryside. According to Jorge Diaz Loeza, secretary of Rural Development, estimates are that more than 95,000 hectares of crops were affected by the storms, and losses are estimated at around 2,000 million pesos. “Our situation was already catastrophic. We were already affected by an extremely intense drought, the strongest one we've lived in for more than 10 years. Then, the coronavirus brought the closure of hotels and restaurants so many in the agricultural sector no longer had a place to market their products. Now, the storms devastated more than 95,000 hectares of crops in the Yucatan's countryside,” he stated. According to a report of crop losses, 180 hectares of habanero pepper were lost; 1,530 hectares of vegetable crops, such as cucumber, radish, eggplant, lettuce, cabbage, green beans, squash, and other products were also lost as they remained underwater. Since producers were starting to sow maize, the storms affected 10,000 hectares of maize crops and 5,000 hectares of mechanized maize crops that already had irrigation systems. 12,000 hectares of citrus, 250 hectares of papaya, and 2,000 hectares of henequen were also lost. The cultivation pastures were the most affected, as the storms damaged 60,000 hectares in the coast and south of the State, as well as of 300 hectares of pitahaya, 150 of avocado, 300 of mamey, 150 of banana and achiote. The official said that they were working to see how many producers had been affected and that, even though they still didn't have a precise number, they knew that thousands of jobs in the field had also been lost because, for example, 20 people work on one hectare of Chile, and 180 hectares of this crop had been lost. Source - https://www.freshplaza.com