Soybean harvest 2018-2019 – to be forgotten or to learn from it?

Another Brazilian soybean harvest comes to an end and once again presents cases of success and failure. Much of the problems are being attributed to meteorological conditions that were quite atypical in most of the producing areas in the South, Southeast, Center-West and North-Northeast regions, with irregular rains and high temperatures. This scenario caused several areas to face successive summers in December/2018, January and February/2019.

Between December 2018 and February 2019, there were critical situations in the issue of soil water availability in Brazil. This occurred precisely at times when soybean crops were in the reproductive phase.

Drought conditions were most critical in the Center-South region of Brazil, especially in the States of Paraná, Mato Grosso do Sul and parts of the States of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Mato Grosso, São Paulo, Goiás and Minas Gerais. Even in the region known as MATOPIBA (Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia), where conditions were not so critical, there were periods of drought, especially in western Bahia in December, and in some regions of Piauí.

In general, such meteorological conditions and water availability in the soil caused widespread drops in productivity. According to the National Supply Company (Conab) and the Association of Soy and Corn Producers (Aprosoja), these losses are expected to range between 5 and 30%, with the largest losses being observed in Paraná (30%), in Mato Grosso do South (15 to 20%) and in the west of Bahia and Piauí (20%). In the latest Conab bulletin, the expectation was for a reduction in average Brazilian productivity of around 7%, falling from 56,6 bags per hectare in the last harvest to 52,8 bags per hectare this harvest.

Despite the unfavorable weather conditions and the frustrations of the soybean harvest in much of Brazil, many producers managed, despite the dry spells, to maintain their productivity above levels considered very high in relation to the national average. Some managed to reach the average for properties, between 60 and 65 bags per hectare. These are the success stories, which certainly did not occur by chance. In these areas, producers have been investing heavily for several years, mainly in the formation of the soil profile, through chemical actions (soil correction, nematode control, use of fertilizers that stimulate drought tolerance, etc.) and biological (crop rotation and intercropping, activation of soil microbiota, cultivar adjustment).

Regardless of the technological level adopted on the farms and the productivity achieved, this last harvest was, therefore, one of those that we should never forget, as it showed us that investing in physical (soil profile) and genetic (more drought tolerant cultivars) assets and in management it is to guarantee better levels of productivity, better profitability for the producer and, consequently, the sustainability of production.

 

*Paulo Cesar Sentelhas is responsible for agroclimatic analyzes of the areas of the champions of the Maximum Productivity Challenge, organized by CESB. He is a professor at USP and FGV and an agronomist with a master's degree in Agrometeorology and a doctorate in Irrigation and Drainage. He is also a researcher at CNPq – Level 1A and editor-in-chief of Scientia Agrícola.