Even though Matthew has a long way to go before it leaves the Southeast, I thought I would share some stories I’ve seen on initial impacts on agriculture. Of course, there will be a lot more information once the storm is gone and folks have time to do their assessments.
AgWeb reported here that cotton and tobacco farmers were preparing for Matthew’s impacts. Fields in North Carolina were already so wet that cotton picking equipment was bogging down due to rains from earlier storms, but farmers were trying to harvest what was ready ahead of the storm. The wind and rain from Hurricane Matthew has the potential to devastate the crop that remains. Only 5 percent of the crop there has been picked so far, according to the National Ag Statistics Service. Fieldworkers were also handpicking tobacco ahead of the storm.
The Packer also reported here that producers were keeping irrigation ditches as low as possible to help with drainage from heavy rains that were expected in the storm. Some were worried about the impact of the strong winds and rain on newly planted sweet corn and green beans. Warehouse operators were moving bins of produce to protected areas to help prevent rain damage.
Southeast Farm Press noted that farmers should be cautious about damage to pesticide storage sites. Flooding could cause pesticide containers to leak or spill into surrounding water, making protective clothing when cleaning up a must. You can read more about proper procedures to deal with potential spills here. In another story about impacts of the store on toxic wastes, AgWeb noted that the heavy rain could complicate efforts to manage the pollution flowing into a sinkhole that opened up beneath a fertilizer plant’s massive pile of contaminated gypsum stacks in central Florida.
The Packer reported that there was minimal damage to Indian River citrus because the storm stayed offshore, keeping the strongest winds away from the groves. You can read the story here.
And finally, NPR reported here that crops in some areas of Haiti were more than 80 percent destroyed from the torrential rain and extreme winds. Hundreds of thousands of homes were destroyed and more than 850 (as of 6 pm on Friday) had died from the storm. This is the strongest storm to hit this impoverished country in more than 50 years.
