Slowly, with showers here and there, the rain begins to enter Paraná this Thursday afternoon from the south of the state, in the areas bordering Santa Catarina. On Friday and Saturday it rains more regularly and intensely across the state. In the Central and Western regions, by the beginning of next week the accumulated rainfall could reach 100 mm – almost a deluge.
These are the most anticipated spring waters in recent years, especially by rural producers. Squeezed by the planting calendar, and with no more time to waste, many took the risk of sowing soybean seeds on dry soil, with faith in the arrival of rain.
A delay now in planting the summer crop tightens the calendar for growing second-crop corn, which needs to be sown between the second half of January and the first half of February.
“As Mato Grosso is also behind, the danger is that everyone plants together, and a climate problem can have stronger impacts, both on supply and commercialization. It’s not good for all the supply to come in just one hour”, says Francisco Simioni, director of the Rural Economy Department of the Paraná Department of Agriculture.
Mato Grosso in the crowd
The people of Mato Grosso, who lead grain production in the country, are also hoping for the advance of the rain coming from the South. In the Lucas do Rio Verde region, only farmers with a central irrigation pivot were able to start planting, according to the Secretary of Agriculture and Environment of the municipality, Marcio Albieri.
Pig farmer Robson Nadin, who grows soybeans and corn, says that few have ventured to sow the land. It rained a little this Wednesday afternoon (27), but producers are expecting a more consistent volume of water to start planting.
Producer Alexandre Lago, from Cascavel, gave up on plans for safrinha corn next year, due to the delay in the current cycle. “Based on the zoning in our region, we would have to plant the second crop by the end of January. I gave up. When the time comes, I will choose between wheat or beans”, he says. Lago says, however, that most of the neighbors planted it in the dust.
In Londrina, where agricultural zoning allows planting safrinha corn until the first half of March, producers will wait for the rain to fall before sowing the summer crop. “Everyone is waiting. If you plant it now, in our clayey soil, and it drizzles, it creates a crust and the plant looks very bad”, reports producer Milton Casaroli.
“It should rain heavily until the middle of next week, reaching more than 100 mm in the Central and Western regions of the state. After Tuesday, the weather will return to normal for the rest of October”, says meteorologist Luiz Renato Lazinski, from the National Institute of Meteorology.
The neutral climate situation should give way in the coming months to the effects of a short La Niña phenomenon, caused by the sharp cooling of sea surface temperatures in the Equatorial Pacific Ocean. For the south of the country, this could mean episodes of heavy rain, gusts of wind, lightning and possible hail.
“If this La Niña is confirmed, we could have irregular and poorly distributed rains, and a high chance of a longer summer across southern Brazil, in Mato Grosso do Sul, São Paulo, Paraguay and part of Argentina”, predicts Lazinski.
What is agricultural zoning
Agricultural Zoning is a map produced by Embrapa with the appropriate planting calendar for Brazilian municipalities, depending on the type of soil and variety of plants. The objective is to prevent recurring climatic adversities from affecting crops in the most sensitive phases. The tool indicates that in every ten harvests there is the possibility of success in at least eight. Anyone who does not comply with agricultural zoning is not entitled to Proagro or federal subsidy for rural insurance premiums. Furthermore, some financial agents make the granting of rural credit conditional on the use of zoning.
Source: Agrolink
