Nuno Faustino sold almost half of the cows, admits to selling sheep and pigs and fears that his future as a farmer is at stake, because there is no water in Baixo Alentejo and the Government, he says, only cares about irrigation.
“I am afraid that in the very short future this type of agriculture will almost completely disappear”Nuno Faustino tells Lusa, with the remaining cows behind him, waiting for the food that will arrive in a van, because the water is already there.
A farmer in the Ourique area, in the rainfed area of Baixo Alentejo and where the water from the Alqueva dam does not reach, Nuno Faustino raises cattle, sheep, some horses and Alentejo pigs, which feed on acorns in the final stage. of creation and that is sold mainly to Spain, for ham.
First thing in the morning, with exceptional heat, next to a herd of cows on a dirt floor without grass, Nuno Faustino questions the future of rainfed systems, without irrigation, without structural measures to minimize the impacts of drought. .
“We don’t earn money, we don’t have pastures, we don’t have cereals, we don’t have water to water animals, there are peasants who already lack water to water animals,” he tells Lusa. And if there’s still water now, he fears the artesian holes won’t last much longer.
And from what he hears from the Government, from the Minister of Agriculture, he concludes: “This activity is seriously threatened. I do not see the political will (…) to look at this problem and consider measures to support these systems”.
What he sees, he says, is concern about irrigation, about canals, about reducing water costs, about improving irrigation systems, about desalination plants. For dry farming, nothing.
Due to the “recurring droughts of recent years”, without pasture or fodder, Nuno Faustino’s drama is the same as that of hundreds of farmers in the Baixo Alentejo, with animals but without food or water to give them.
the drought took mehave to reduce substantially, especially livestock. They are larger animals, they need more feed, and the lack of pasture and hay production, with a huge reduction, especially in the last two years”, forced me to “reduce a lot”.
Nuno Faustino went from 180 breeding cows to 100and he says that he is going to have to reduce more because at the beginning of July there is nothing in the field, the hay he produced was 25% of normal, and the prices of fodder in the market have doubled.
“Therefore, the only solution, in the absence of any support that is visible and helps to maintain this type of activity, is to reduce the workforce to try to hold out, to see how long we can hold out,” he concludes.
But even if there is water in the ponds for another two months, it is quite possible that the continuity of the family of animal breeders, with drought being the rule rather than the exception, could end.
For now he sold cows, then he will sell sheep and the pigs follow the same path. He has 150, be prepared to only be left with 100.
Nuno Faustino is not the only one involved in this process, nor is it only sold in Ourique.
The president of the Association and Farmers of Campo Branco (which includes the municipalities of Aljustrel, Almodôvar, Ourique and Castro Verde), António Aires, after making an assessment in Lusa of the situation of drought, lack of food and the price they reach , concludes: “There are many producers who end up with the troops”.
And he talks about how worrying this is, because it is the animals that establish people in the territory, and without them what will happen is abandonment.
António Aires considers it imperative to retain water when it rains, build a large dam, create small irrigated fields to make pastures, “a complement to not depend so much on climate change.”
It would be a way to stop the stampede, he admits, and repeats: “there are ranchers killing the herd.”
Nuno Faustino, like António Aires and other farmers who spoke with Lusa, also defends that more water reaches drylands.
When the irrigation systemit is the one that came from the clouds unfortunately it does not comeor little, what made sense was to provide these territories with small irrigated lands, to create what I call an assisted dry land”, he argues.
It wouldn’t be for planting corn or olive trees, but it would help when it didn’t rain in spring, watering to produce hay on a small area of dry land.
It would be a way to continue with the activity, adapted to climate change, a help in case it doesn’t rain. Otherwise “it will be impossible to continue”.
The discourse of the farmers of the Baixo Alentejo focuses on the drought, which for them is already taken for granted, they just don’t know if it will be more or less each year.
In the field of cows Takeaway food is also already taken for granted for them.. They follow the van as it arrives, with a trailer and a system that provides food intermittently as the van drives through the bare countryside. Breakfast is served, the water is in the usual place, in a trailer that is also a tanker, and they are well cared for.
And the pigs? Nuno Faustino is also president of the Alentejo Pig Breeders Association and answers: The drought affects everything, even the “ex-libris” of the Alentejo pig and its acorn-fed finish, which gives it “enormous value”.
The Alentejo pig, he explains, is threatened by the mortality of the Montado, driven by drought. If it does not rain, the pasture dries up or at least does not produce acorns, the last feeding phase for these pigs, before they are sold. In the 2022/23 campaign, Nuno Faustino, due to lack of food, had to buy feed, which meant an increase in costs and lower quality of the pig.
As there is a reduction in breeding sows, less than 5,000 in the countryThe Alentejo pig is in the category of greatest threat in terms of native breeds, it probably has more support but still not enough, in the words of the person in charge.
If nothing is done here, the Alentejo pig runs the risk of disappearing as a breed, because if it is not economically viable they will not want it as a pet, he warns.
“We will have irrigated islands and we will have 80% of the territory without water and with no prospects for the future, we will have bushes, fires, human and animal desertification, and the desert advances.”
At that point, chances are even the takeout cows aren’t there.
Source: Observadora
