Unusually cold weather has seriously damaged Mexico's corn crop in the northern state of Sinaloa, with an estimated loss of more than four million tons of corn.
Frost has affected more than 400,000 hectares (1.5 million acres) of the harvest in Sinaloa, an area with some of Mexico's richest farmland, the state-funded BBC reported. The loss amounts to approximately 16 percent of the country's annual harvest.
In Sinaloa, an estimated 26,000 hectares of other vegetables, or 71 percent of the crops, were also destroyed. Green beans, cucumbers and squash crops were largely affected, according to Patricio Robles, director of the Confederation of State Farming Associations of Sinaloa.
Other northern states have reported crop damage as well, including corn, wheat, soy and vegetables.
President Felipe Calderon has met with farmers and state officials, promising federal aid, credit and insurance payments to help farmers plant new crops within the next two weeks before the sowing season is over.
"It is not an ordinary catastrophe or the simple loss of a harvest, but an emergency situation that demands a clear and forceful response from the authorities, a response that is not lost in bureaucratic delays," President Felipe Calderon said.
"It's not just the billions of pesos that may be lost," he added. "We have to recover all we can because it is vital for feeding the country."
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