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Flood-battered farmers in southern Brazil wade through lost harvests

After 3 days of relentless rains, Edite de Almeida and her husband left their flooded home in early May and let loose their simple dairy herd on greater ground. Close by, the waters increased above her head and within a day they were lapping at the roofing systems of homes.

Record-breaking floods in southern Brazil, the outcome of weather patterns heightened by climate modification, have only started to recede after displacing half a million individuals in the state of Rio Grande do Sul and eliminating more than 160.

The complete degree of the losses is still entering into focus, especially in rural areas where farmers like Almeida and her family produce much of Brazil's rice, wheat and dairy.

Of her 60 egg-laying hens, just eight made it through. Their cows have nowhere to graze in the flooded landscape.

I'm not grieving. I'm grateful, since there are lots of who lost much more than us, Almeida said. I'm grateful we endured and I grieve for those who lost family.

Now the concern is to save the animals. The calves are still nursing, she added.

Her husband Joao Engelmann has actually made a daily trek by foot, tractor and boat to bring the herd whatever food he can find. He returns sopping damp each night after wading with buddies through their farms, helping to transport away died livestock and tend to the survivors.

One neighbor found a dead hog in his bed room. All around, fields of rice and veggies have been washed away.

Theirs were among the nearly 6,500 family farms flooded by this month's torrential rainstorms, according to analysis of satellite information by consultancy Terra Analytics.

The floods have actually rattled agricultural markets as they interfered with soy harvesting, washed out silos, snared farm exports and eliminated over 400,000 chickens. The federal government is lining up rice imports to blunt the effect on national inflation figures.

The washed out farms and roads around the state capital Porto Alegre have actually contributed to food and water shortages in the location, contributing to the crisis disrupting the lives of more than 2 million individuals.

Parts of the state saw more than 700 mm (28 inches) of rain up until now this month, national weather service INMET reported--. more than London's average rains in a year.

As the floodwaters started to pull away in recent weeks, Almeida. got a very first glance of her damaged home, with the walls stained,. devices trashed and belongings covered in mud.

I can't think about the future. That belongs to God,. Almeida stated. I don't expect to have once again what I had in the past. We're starting over, she added, grimacing through tears.

BEGINNING OVER

Almeida and Engelmann understand what it indicates to start from. absolutely nothing.

They fulfilled in the 1980s at one of the very first encampments of the. Landless Employees' Motion in main Rio Grande do Sul, where. the motion - the biggest of its kind in Latin America - got. its start, inhabiting rural properties to demand land reform.

They wed and had their first kids in that camp,. called Cruz Alta, before the state federal government provided. authorization to settle in Eldorado do Sul, about 70 km (45 miles). west of Porto Alegre.

They are among 30 households in the settlement who produced. enough rice, vegetables, milk, eggs and pork to earn a living,. construct and furnish homes and send their kids to university.

The floods have left all of that hanging in the balance.

Almeida, Engelmann and their child are sleeping on a. truck bed in a neighbor's storage facility, improvising a domestic. routine as they put their lives back together.

I have actually been through all this in the encampments - the. difficulties to prepare, to sleep. I discovered to live that method. But I. didn't think I 'd be doing it again, Almeida said.

Among her closest pals, Inacio Hoffmann, 60, was just. four months into retirement when the floods tore through his. farm, killing 13 of 22 dairy cows.

It's so bleak to transport off and bury these animals that we. took care of every day, stated Hoffmann. He is weighing whether. to leave all of it behind and try a new life elsewhere.

Almeida said her family is figured out to stick it out.

We have actually originated from absolutely nothing. We have actually returned to absolutely nothing. Now we. start again..

(source: Reuters)