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BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Argentina’s key agricultural regions will receive rain and a drop in temperatures in the coming days, the Buenos Aires grain exchange said on Wednesday, a combination expected to help curb the spread of an insect that has damaged the country’s corn lots.<\/p>\n
Argentina is the world’s third-largest exporter of corn, but the crop’s current season is being affected by an unusual boom in leafhoppers, an insect that spreads the corn stunt disease spiroplasma.<\/p>\n
Leafhoppers, which are smaller than grasshoppers, thrive in dry, warm-weather conditions.<\/p>\n
“Most of the agricultural area will see moderate to heavy rainfall (25 to 75 millimeters)” over the next seven days, the grains exchange said in its weekly crop report.<\/p>\n
“Along with the (rain) front, southerly winds will arrive, producing below-normal minimum temperatures in most of the agricultural area,” the report added.<\/p>\n
Argentina is in the first weeks of the austral autumn.<\/p>\n
The country’s agricultural producers have recently started harvesting the 2023\/24 soybean and corn crops. The expected rains are also forecast to benefit planting of 2024\/25 wheat, which starts in the second half of May.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Maximilian Heath in Buenos Aires; Editing by Matthew Lewis)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n