Producers in the country's Central-West region started the 2016/17 season with great caution. With the failure of the last harvest, mainly due to the lack of rain caused by El Niño, many held back on investments in technology to try to reduce costs and recover losses. The diagnosis comes from Expedição Safra, a project that carries out a technical-journalistic survey of grain production and, throughout November, visited the fields of Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul and Goiás.
In the 2015/16 cycle, the climate punished the three states of the Brazilian Center-West. The lack of rain, especially during the grain filling season, resulted in the loss of entire areas. “Some producers were not even able to harvest the second crop because it did not justify taking corn from the field with a productivity of 10 bags per hectare, whereas the normal rate is 100 bags/hectare. Producers are fearful throughout the region, trying to recover from the fall of the last harvest”, points out Expedição member, Antônio Senkovski.
In Goiás, the state that suffered most from losses during the second harvest, many producers held back on investments in fertilizer. “Instead of putting 100 bags of fertilizer, they put 80, the minimum to have a good result. A little out of fear that last year's scenario will repeat itself, but also because a large part still needs to pay off debts”, highlights Senkovski. Cooperatives in Goiás are trying to renegotiate advance sales contracts from the previous cycle and use the next harvest as payment.
In Dourados (MS), farmers are also having to redo the math, as the cost of production has grown between 30% and 35% since the last cycle. According to Expedição Safra, the adjustment in expenses is mainly due to the increased use of pesticides to combat weeds. According to Senkovski, producers who do not rotate crops or cover the soil during the winter are having to make three applications before using soybean seed.
If last season the villain was El Niño, this cycle the climate promises a respite. With the confirmation of the occurrence of moderate La Niña, so far, there has been no lack of rain for planting. In some regions, the rainy season arrived earlier than expected, making it possible to bring forward the calendar. According to Senkovski, the region of Nova Mutum and Campo Novo do Parecis (MT), and in the north of Mato Grosso do Sul, soybean sowing was brought forward by up to a month. “It’s a historic record. Soybeans have never been planted so early”, highlights the member of Expedição Safra. With anticipation, producers and cooperatives hope to gain income in the off-season, made up mainly of corn, popcorn, sunflower seeds, cotton and sorghum.
Source: Agrolink
