Costa Rica’s cattle farmers devise strategies for coping with El Niño

San Jose, Costa Rica, july 22, 2014 (IICA). Mitigation actions and the adoption of permanent, comprehensive measures to enable producers to be better prepared for climatic variability—these should be the priorities as farmers in Costa Rica steel themselves for the possible effects of El Niño on their livestock operations.

That was one of the conclusions reached at a meeting of cattle farmers and representatives of the country’s agricultural institutions held at the headquarters of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), in San Jose.

According to the participants, protected environments need to be created in the countryside, such as shade areas for livestock in dry zones. Other recommendations include using water storage systems during periods of drought and the movement of animals when floods occur.

In this country, the effect of El Niño would be to cause drought in some areas and excess rainfall in others, making planning and interagency coordination essential to meet the specific needs of producers, observed the IICA Representative in Costa Rica, Miguel Ángel Arvelo.

According to the Agribusiness and Marketing specialist of the IICA Office in Costa Rica, Diego González, preventing and mitigating the impact of El Niño are essential because the country’s agricultural productivity could be affected. This, in turn, would mean a loss of income for the most vulnerable producers.

Felipe Arguedas, senior director of operations of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG), agreed with González, stressing that planning was essential to maintain productivity while the effects of El Niño were being felt, and to reactivate it when they eased.

Erick Quirós, Deputy Director of the MAG’s Executive Secretariat for Agriculture Sector Planning (SEPSA), explained that during the second half of the year the phenomenon was expected to cause irregular rainfall on the Pacific coast, a truncated rainy season combined with heavier precipitation in the Caribbean, and strong droughts in the north of the country.

Other effects would include higher maximum temperatures, less cloud cover and more electrical storms, Quirós remarked.

“Next year we will be faced with a very hot dry season preceded by a short rainy season. The period of transition to the 2015 dry season will be prolonged and intense, since the rains are expected to end in October,” he explained.

The meeting involved representatives of the MAG, the National Animal Health Service (SENASA), the National Institute for Agricultural Innovation and Technology Transfer (INTA), SEPSA and cattle farmers from the Central, Northern, Chorotega, Central Pacific, Caribbean and Southern regions of the country.

For more information, contact 
miguel.arvelo@iica.int