Vegetable farmers are suffering great losses as rain-triggered floods hit Rio Grande do Sul state in southern Brazil, damaging local facilities and flooding the farmland.

Some 35 kilometers from Porto Alegre in Sao Leopoldo, the Rio dos Sinos river, with soaring water levels, flooded large stretches of farmland.

Agriculture in the area has been badly hit by the catastrophic floods, especially in the harvest season for some main crops, including soybeans, sugar canes and corn.

Edirne, a local vegetable farmer, said he expected a good harvest, but now the plantation is a pond of water.

"Before the flood come, the vegetables were growing well. The harvest was promised. But it's gone up in smoke now," said Edirne.

Edirne said he has three vegetable plantations with a total area of nine hectares. The flood has destroyed at least 80 percent of his crops.

After the flood, vegetable prices in some main cities in southern Brazil have doubled due to short supply. But many farmers only enjoyed limited benefits as most plantations failed to yield sizable vegetables.

Edirne said the flood has caused more than one million Brazilian reals in economic losses.

"There is nothing I can do now. After 70 days, the vegetables will ripen in the next planting cycle. I hope the harvest can return to normal. This is the only way now. We have to work one or two years to make up for the losses," said Edirne.

(If you have specific expertise and want to contribute, or if you have a topic of interest that you'd like to share with us, please email us at nature@cgtn.com.)