Chad Smith, NAFB News Service

The Mexican agriculture industry expects to lose approximately 76 billion pesos, or $3.4 billion, due to a lower harvest brought on by the government’s ban on glyphosate imports. Mexico News Daily reports farmers are expecting to run out of their glyphosate stocks because imports have been banned by the Ministry of Environment during the fall-winter farming cycle. The National Agricultural Council in Mexico says the shortage will negatively impact as many as seven million farmers and other workers who are economically dependent on the agriculture industry. The National Agricultural Council issued a statement saying, “The inventories are running out. We as farmers don’t have glyphosate for the fall-winter cycle.” The council says if the government restrictions aren’t lifted, the only thing it will achieve is a major drop in food production across the country. The Mexican farmers estimate a drop of 30-50 percent in this year’s harvest, with most of the impact in grains. An agrochemical company spokesman says their industry hasn’t been able to find a replacement for glyphosate that’s nearly as effective.