Rains Ease Severe Drought in Mexico Grain Belt Region

MONTERREY, Mexico — Rains in Mexico’s northwest have eased severe drought conditions in the vital agricultural and cattle-ranching region, but farm leaders say the crisis isn’t over.

“We’ve been blessed by rains. It doesn’t solve the problem, but it does raise our spirits,” said Hector Roman, president of the Sonora state Confederation of Agriculture Organizations.

A yearlong drought in Mexico’s northwestern grain belt sapped water supplies, forcing major reductions in crop plantings last fall and this spring in northwestern Sonora and Sinaloa states.

Northern Baja California, Chihuahua and Coahuila states still are suffering effects of the drought that parched crops and turned pastures into barren fields.

In some areas of Sonora and Chihuahua, the spring planting season was scrapped altogether as dam levels fell to less than 10% of capacity.

Most affected are sorghum, soybeans, corn, rice and wheat.

At least 660,000 head of cattle have died, mostly in the northwest, because of a lack of water and feed caused by the drought, according to an Agriculture Department report.