Categories: Politics

Video deceives by attributing a ban on soybean planting to the PT in Mato Grosso

Video deceives by attributing a ban on soybean planting to the PT in Mato Grosso

Misleading: It is misleading video in which a man claims that the Workers’ Party (PT) banned the planting of soybeans in Mato Grosso until December. In fact, the party’s state directorate proposed a lawsuit to keep the planting period from September until the end of the year, instead of extending it until February 2023, with the alleged motivation of preventing the proliferation of the “Asian rust” pest. , common to this culture. It is also not true that the Landless Workers Movement (MST) will supervise agribusiness.

Investigated Content: Video in which a man declares that, at the request of the PT, the Justice prohibited the planting of soybeans in Mato Grosso until December, harming the producers. The man insinuates that Justice has a side, makes accusations against former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his party and exalts President Jair Bolsonaro (PL). He also claims that the MST will oversee agribusiness if Lula is elected.

where it was published: TikTok.

Completion of Proof: The video in which a man claims that the PT has filed a lawsuit to prohibit the planting of soybeans in Mato Grosso until December is misleading. In fact, the party’s state directorate has judicially requested that the seed sowing period from September to the end of the year be maintained, as was adopted in previous plantings, until the 2020/2021 harvest, instead of extending for February, as proposed by the Ministry of Agriculture and with the consent of the state government.

The party’s argument in the lawsuit was that the extension of the deadline would make soybean plantations more susceptible to the plague known as “Asian rust”, common to this type of crop. Although there is no consensus in the technical area about the risk in a longer sowing window, the Court accepted, on September 8, the request for an injunction (provisional decision) of the action proposed by the PT.

In the video, the author also claims that Lula, candidate for the presidency of the Republic, would have said that, if elected, he would put the MST to supervise agribusiness. The former president’s adviser denies that he has declared that he will hand over control of agribusiness to the movement.

For Comprova, misleading it is content taken from the original context and used in another so that its meaning is altered; that uses inaccurate data or that leads to an interpretation different from the author’s intention; content that confuses, with or without the deliberate intent to cause harm.

Scope of publication: As of September 22, the video had over 192,000 views, 21,200 likes, 1,700 comments and was shared to WhatsApp 9,800 times. This content was sent to Comprova by readers through our number WhatsApp, or (11) 97045-4984.

What the author of the publication says: TikTok does not allow sending private messages between users who do not follow each other. We did not find profiles with the same identification on other social networks.

How do we check: First, Comprova did Google searches with the keywords “PT” + “soy” + “Mato Grosso” and the query returned a newspaper report Value about the subject.

The research also led the team to the publications of the Ministry of Agriculture It’s from government of Mato Grosso that authorized the extension of the period for planting soybeans in the state.

The report also looked for indicators on the participation of agribusiness in the Brazilian GDP and located data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) It’s from Cepea.

Comprova sought advice from Lula, who denied the statements attributed to the former president. The government of Mato Grosso and the PT directorate in the state were also contacted, but there was no return until the verification was completed. Unable to contact the author of the video.

There is no ban on planting in Mato Grosso

It is misleading that the PT prevented the planting of soybeans in Mato Grosso. An injunction, filed by the party with the Justice of that state, requested the suspension of the new planting schedule for the 2022/2023 crop, created from a joint decision between the state government and the Ministry of Agriculture. Contrary to what the author of the video says, according to which sowing would be prohibited from now until the end of the year, planting is authorized especially in this period – September 16 to December 31 -, and no longer extended until February 3 2023, as initially predicted by the Ordinance No. 607from the Ministry of Agriculture.

THE injunctiongranted by the Court of Justice of Mato Grosso on September 8, considers the Joint Normative Instruction SEDEC/INDEA N. 02/2021, which establishes the interval from September 16 to February 3 for planting, increasing the period by 34 days. The period from September to December was the usual period until the 2020/2021 harvest. The full decision had not been made public until the publication of this investigation. The lawsuit argues that the lengthening of the soybean planting window reduces the sanitary void – a period in which it is forbidden to keep plants alive in the field – and increases the resistance of the fungus that causes Asian rust to existing pesticides.

As reported by Value, the extension of the sowing period responded to a request from the Association of Soy and Corn Producers of Mato Grosso (Aprosoja-MT) and to a specific banner of its former president, Antônio Galvan. A supporter of Bolsonaro, he left the command of the maximum entity of soybean growers to apply to the Senate by the PTB.

The publication also points out that there is no technical consensus on the ideal period for planting soybeans in Mato Grosso. For the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), an agency linked to the Ministry of Agriculture, the shorter window, until December 31, helps to prevent cases of Asian rust, the main disease of the crop, or that the fungus becomes more resistant to pesticides on the market.

After the court decision, entities representing producers in the region released a joint letter criticizing the PT’s request and the Justice’s position.

MST will not inspect agribusiness

In the video, the author also claims that former president Lula would have declared that, if elected, he will put the MST to supervise agribusiness. However, there are no records of PT statements about the social movement in this context and the allegation is also refuted by his team.

“Lula never spoke about this matter. The court’s decision on the subject follows the guidance of science to protect the production itself from the plague of Asian rust. I never said that the MST would supervise agribusiness”, informed the press office.

The service sector has a higher share than agribusiness in Brazil’s GDP

In the video investigated, the author also praises agribusiness, declaring that the segment is the greatest wealth in Brazil. According to calculations by Center for Advanced Studies in Applied Economics (Cepea)from the Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture at the University of São Paulo (Esalq/USP), production represented 27.4% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – the sum of all the country’s goods – in 2021. This indicator, however, , is the target of criticism from some experts, as pointed out by a report by the Piauías they consider an inflated estimate.

indicators from the IBGE, however, reveal a retraction in the sector in the same period and also point out that the largest share of the Brazilian GDP is in the service sector, almost 10 times greater than agriculture.

The retraction registered was 0.2%, while the service sector grew 4.7%, followed by industry, with an increase of 4.5%. The data goes against yet another misinformation disclosed in the investigated video, according to which the sector would be the fastest growing in the country.

The Brazilian GDP reached a total of R$ 8.7 trillion in 2021, according to the IBGE. Of this total, only R$ 598.1 billion are related to agribusiness – which is equivalent to 6.87%. As shown in the table below, the total GDP also includes industry, which has a share of R$1.6 trillion, and the service sector, which in 2021 closed with a share of R$5.2 trillion. The grand total also considers tax amounts.

Mato Grosso is the largest soybean producer in Brazil

The state of Mato Grosso, according to data from the National Supply Company (Conab), is the largest producer of soybeans in Brazil. O 12th Survey of the 2021/2022 Crop, published in August, calculates a harvested production of 41,490.2 million tons, a combination of a record planted area of ​​11,108.5 thousand hectares, with an average yield of 3,735 kg/ha. Thus, according to the report, Mato Grosso obtained a 13.6% increase in its production, accounting for 33% of Brazilian production. In the video investigated, the author points out the state as responsible for 25% of production.

why do we investigate: Comprova investigates suspicious content that went viral on social media about the pandemic, public policies of the federal government and the presidential elections. The video investigated takes several pieces of information out of context, and feeds distortions that can negatively interfere in the process of choosing candidates by voters who will go to the polls on October 2 in Brazil. The choice of candidates must be based on true information.

Other checks on the topic: Recently, Comprova also investigated that rremoval of rice producers from indigenous lands was not Lula’s determinationwhat PT did not defend Nazism and Fascism at PT eventwhat Video deceives by denying secret budget and decontextualizing price hikes in Brazil is that is misleading content that associates meat price with alleged JBS monopoly and plot with PT.

Investigated by: A Gazeta e Correio; Verified by: GaúchaZH, Plural Curitiba, O Popular, Piauí, Estado de S.Paulo, SBT, SBT News, Metrópoles, Folha de S.Paulo and Grupo Sinos

Source: CNN Brasil