Sugarcane farmer Marcos Meloni is still haunted by his battle last month to fight the flames on his land, as the double-edged disaster of fires and drought hits Brazil's agricultural sector hard.
"The rearview mirror of the water tanker shriveled up" from the intense heat, recalled the farmer from Barrinha, at the heart of a major agricultural area 340 kilometers (211 miles) from Sao Paulo.
"I thought I was going to die there."
Brazil's worst drought in seven decades has fueled fires across the vast nation in recent weeks, ripping through the Amazon rainforest, leaving jaguars with burn injuries in the Pantanal wetlands, and choking major cities with smoke.
The country's vital agricultural sector is also reeling, with harvests of sugarcane, arabica coffee, oranges and soybeans—of which Brazil is the world's main producer and exporter—at risk.
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