Heavy Rain Threatens Rice, Some Cotton In South America
By Brad Luchen and Drew Lerner
Kansas City, April 9 (World Weather Inc.) – Heavy rain moved through northeastern parts of Argentina, southern Paraguay and portions of western Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil Friday into Sunday morning. Another area of torrential rain occurred in 
northern, central and southeastern Buenos Aires. Both regions experienced flooding and some damage to cotton and rice quality may have resulted. Corn was least affected, but some soybean areas were at least threatened by some of the excessive moisture. Additional rain will fall into Monday possibly raising the potential for additional damage.
One of the wettest areas in South America during the two day period ending at dawn Sunday was from eastern Formosa, eastern Chaco and northeastern Santa Fe through portions of Corrientes to northern Uruguay, northern Entre Rios and neighboring areas of western and northern Rio Grande do Sul and southern Paraguay. Rainfall in these areas ranged from 1.35 inches to more than 2.50 inches most often, but several areas in eastern Chaco eastern Formosa and northern Corrientes received 3.39 to 7.28 inches of rain. parts of the region saturated very quickly leading to flash flooding. Heavy rain 
also fell in southern Paraguay into northern Rio Grande do Sul where 5.00 to more than 8.00 inches resulted.
Rain was also excessively greatly over a part of southeastern Argentina from southeastern Cordoba and southern Santa Fe through northern, central and southeastern Buenos Aires. Amounts in this region varied from 1.50 to more than 4.00 inches. Extreme amounts reached 7.79 inches in north-central Buenos Aires.
The lightest rain of the weekend occurred from interior southern Entre Rios through central Santa Fe to Santiago del Estero, northern Cordoba and western portions of both Formosa and Chaco where 0.05 to 0.71 inch with local totals to 1.00 inch resulted. Southwestern parts of Buenos Aires, La Pampa and San Luis also reported 0.05 to 0.75 inch of moisture.
The greatest rainfall likely threatened declines in rice 
and cotton quality, especially in northeastern Argentina. Some cotton in eastern Formosa, eastern Chaco and southern Paraguay was in the open boll stage of development. That makes cotton fiber vulnerable to discoloration and a possible general decline in quality. Parts of northeastern Argentina and Paraguay were already wet from previous rain, although northeastern Argentina was in the process of drying down prior to the heavy rainfall. Only a small portion of cotton and rice country were impacted by the greatest rain, but additional rain was expected through Monday.
Further to the south, in south-central through southeastern Argentina, excessive rain also induced some flooding and raised the risk of damage to soybeans. However, a few days of heavy rain should not induce a serious problem other than delaying the harvest of early beans and corn. Certainly if dry weather does not evolve soon 
the soybean crop will be at risk of some damage.
Sunseed was not completely harvested late last week and that is the crop in Buenos Aires that was most vulnerable to damage over the weekend. Sunseed does not handle wet weather conditions well when the crop is mature and it is very easy for a decline in quality to occur in such conditions as those of the weekend.
Sunseed harvesting was reported to be complete on 88% of the nation’s total acreage on April 6 which is down from 96% done a year earlier. The Buenos Aires crop was 83% harvested down from 92% last year at this time. Cordoba and La Pampa were reporting the remaining unharvested crop and they received rain earlier last week.
Rice harvesting in Argentina was 70% done as of Thursday which is down from 76% a year ago.
Additional heavy rain will fall in eastern Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Rio Grande do Sul crop production areas into Tuesday. Northeastern Argentina, southern Paraguay, and far southern Brazil (especially Rio Grande do Sul) will receive another 1.50 to 4.00 inches of rain and locally as much as 5.50 inches. Buenos Aires is expected to receive another 1.00 to 3.00 inches of rain and locally as much as 6.00 inches. Any areas of flooding already under way will worsen in areas that will receive additional rain through Monday and some new areas of flooding are possible.
The additional heavy rain will cause further declines in rice and cotton quality by Wednesday. New rice damage may be most significant as the greatest rain shifts into Rio Grande do Sul. Rice harvesting was 35% done in Rio Grande do Sul on March 23, but no other statistics were available. It is assumed that at least half of the crop remains to be harvested and the rainy weather will prevent any fieldwork from occurring this week and the flood water and pounding rain today and Monday will likely raise the potential for declines in both production and quality.
The area of low pressure and frontal boundary responsible for this significant rain event will eventually move out of Argentina and Brazil by midday Tuesday. These areas will then be dry biased through the coming weekend which will be long enough end flooding and begin firming the topsoil in areas that dry best.
Needless to say, it has been a wet week in Argentina and it is time for a break. The drying coming on the remainder of this week (after Tuesday morning) will be extremely important to crop conditions and harvest progress.
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