By DEBORA REY, ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER For 108 years it does not show a similar drought in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina in the cycle of autumn and winter. For over a year and a half that it does not rain more than 15 millimeters, and in the last 8 months, the drought is total. BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Argentina’s president declared an agricultural emergency Monday in the nation’s breadbasket provinces, responding to a key demand by powerful farm organizations amid the worst drought in decades. Cristina Fernandez told political and business leaders in a televised press conference that the decree will exempt thousands of farmers from paying various taxes for one year to help them confront what analysts estimate will be $5 billion in losses this year. Argentina’s farming provinces, including Buenos Aires, Santa Fe, Entre Rios, Cordoba, La Pampa, Chaco and Santiago del Estero, have been hit by the worst drought since at least 1971, according to the National Weather Service. In some areas, officials say it is the worst drought since the 1930s. Winds across the pampas are whipping up once-fertile soil that has turned to sand, quickly covering hundreds of parched cow carcasses piling up on barren swaths of land.

Argentine president declares farm emergency