Worst drought in decades hits Brazil's Northeast Brazil's
Northeast is suffering its worst drought in decades, threatening
hydro-power supplies in an area prone to blackouts and
potentially slowing economic growth in one of the country's
emerging agricultural frontiers. Lack of rain has hurt corn and
cotton crops, left cattle and goats to starve to death in dry
pastures and wiped some 30 percent off sugar cane production in
the region responsible for 10 percent of Brazil's cane output.
Thousands of subsistence farmers have seen their livelihoods
wither away in recent months as animal carcasses lie abandoned
in some areas that have seen almost no rain in two years. "We
are experiencing the worst drought in 50 years, with
consequences that could be compared to a violent earthquake,"
Eduardo Salles, agriculture secretary in the northeastern state
of Bahia, said in an emailed statement. Dams in the Northeast
ended December at just 32 percent of capacity, according to the
national electrical grid operator. That pu