The record harvest of more than 300 million tons expected for Brazil this year demonstrates the proportion that agribusiness has taken within the Brazilian economy.
Between 2002 and 2022, the country’s agricultural GDP jumped (in deflated numbers) from US$ 122 billion to US$ 500 billion – the equivalent of an Argentina.
According to economist José Roberto Mendonça de Barros, Brazilian agribusiness has shown extraordinary growth over the last 40 years, especially in the last 20 years.
“Unlike what happened in the urban sector, whether in industry or services, the growth of agribusiness is persistent and this is the first lesson that agro teaches. Always growing is more important than growing a lot in a few years and falling in the following years. It is sustainable growth, which makes agribusiness very competitive.”
This growth, according to experts, is based on investment in research and public policies for the countryside, which have led to successive records in agricultural production.
According to the National Supply Company (Conab), Brazil should break the barrier of 300 million tons of grain this year, establishing itself as the third largest cereal producer in the world, behind China and the United States.
In 20 years, the grain harvest rose from 120.2 million tons to 310.6 million, an increase of 258%. The planted area went from 43.7 million to 76.7 million hectares, an increase of 76.5%.
The numbers show that production grew three times more than the area occupied by crops, which is due to productivity gains, thanks to investments in research and technology.
The highlight in Brazilian fields is soy, an oilseed that has adapted to the different microclimates of the country, being cultivated both in the colder regions of the extreme south and in the tropical climate of the north and northeast.
Brazil overtook the US and became the largest producer of the grain, and is also today the main exporter.
While the 2002/03 harvest yielded 47.4 million tons of soy, the current one will produce 152.9 million, an increase of 322%, according to Conab. Corn, used in crop rotation with soybeans, grew 260%, from 47.4 million to 123 million tons.
The agribusiness GDP, calculated by the Center for Advanced Studies in Applied Economics (Cepea) at the University of São Paulo, will only be released next month, but should be close to US$ 500 billion, according to researcher Nicole Rennó, from the area of macroeconomics from Cepea.
The fall in value caused by high costs in the sector was, in part, offset by good harvests.
doubling the mean
Agronomist Tamires Tangerino, 33 years old, a technical consultant for Stoller, a company specialized in plant physiology and nutrition, has been applying her knowledge to help producers in southwestern São Paulo reach high levels of productivity.
On the last day of the 14th, in a commercial soy plantation by Cooperativa Agrícola de Capão Bonito, it obtained a productivity of 6,672 kg per hectare, double the national average and above the excellent regional average of 4,800 kg/ha – an example of the impact of research as an engine of growth.
Soy and corn in the same area
In the area of the Cooperativa Agrícola de Capão Bonito, it is possible to get an idea of the expansion of soy in the southwest of São Paulo. In 2005, the cooperative had 55 associated farmers and none of them had soybeans as their main crop – beans were the main crop, and corn was only planted in the summer.
Today, with 102 members, the cooperative plants 24,000 hectares with soybeans, with an average production of 80 bags per hectare and, in the case of corn, more than 70% of the total is grown in the off-season.
One of the cooperative members, producer Walter Kashima, 48 years old, who cultivates about 2,500 hectares of soybeans near the urban area of Capão Bonito, harvested last Thursday (16) an average of 80 bags (4,800 kilos) of soy per hectare.
In the same area, he was sowing corn that will be harvested between June and July. “We are taking advantage of the respite given by the rains that have been insistent. This sunshine has been a blessing,” said Kashima.
Tropicalization
The turning point in Brazilian agriculture began with the advent of soybeans in the south of the country, according to the coordinator of the Agribusiness Center of the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV), Roberto Rodrigues, former Minister of Agriculture.
“It was the big kickoff, as soybeans, with a shorter cycle, made it possible to grow a winter crop after it, such as wheat, oats or sorghum. Soy made possible the second crop. Over time, this process evolved into other regions of the country, with other characteristics,” he explained.
In states where it doesn’t rain in winter, like much of the Southeast, Midwest and Northeast, it was not possible to plant a second crop, but that didn’t stop producers, according to Rodrigues.
“When I was Minister of Agriculture (from 2003 to 2006, in the first Lula administration), I launched with Embrapa the crop-livestock integration, later crop-livestock-forestry, allowing two crops to be cultivated also in regions where it does not rain in winter, basically because of the pasture. You plant corn, soybeans or cotton, which are summer crops, and after the harvest you have pasture formed for the cattle.”
The evolution continued with irrigation, which enabled the producer to make three effectively agricultural crops, such as soybeans, corn and beans, irrigating when necessary.
“It is a sum of processes of evolution over time that began with soy, a practically new crop in the country”, says Rodrigues.
He claims to remember that, in 1965, when he graduated in Economics, there were only 400,000 hectares of soy in Brazil, producing 1,200 kilograms (per hectare). Today it has 44 million hectares, producing 3,600 kilos.
“Technological evolution, the tropicalization of soybeans and other crops allowed for this spectacular progress in productivity. We are going to evolve much more, because we have the main thing, the entrepreneurship of Brazilian farmers. The sky is the limit”.
For Mendonça de Barros, in addition to natural resources, Brazil has evolved in terms of technology in the field. “We have research, dissemination of information and people’s competence. Our agricultural sector is open to the world, having no problem with market limitations, so it can significantly increase production. International organizations project that, given the growth in global demand for food over the next 10 or 15 years, Brazil will provide at least 30% to 35%.”
Source: CNN Brasil
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