Science and partnerships promote cotton production in Ceará

Ceará is preparing to harvest a planted area of ​​approximately two thousand hectares of cotton starting in July, equivalent to double the previous harvest. The result is the second harvest of the Cotton Culture Implementation Program in Ceará, which brought fruits that go beyond cotton bolls. Traumatized by the cotton boll weevil, which devastated plantations more than two decades ago, many producers abandoned the crop. Today, with new cultivars developed through research, modern management, support from rural technical assistance and encouragement from large textile companies, the state has established the basis for the sustainable expansion of feather production in the coming years.

“The results make us very optimistic. We already have more than two thousand hectares legalized at the Ceará Agricultural Defense Agency (Adagri) and companies are in the implementation process to produce the seed necessary to reach 30 thousand hectares of cotton in the state in the coming years, generating employment and income from the crop more resistant to drought among the traditional ones, and now with technology to coexist with pests”, celebrates the program coordinator, Euvaldo Bringel.

Purchase guarantee

Another point that favors this advancement is the fact that the state is home to a strong textile hub, which reduces transportation costs. According to the General Spinning and Weaving Industry Union in the State (Sinditêxtil), Ceará is the third largest national hub, with one of the most modern technology parks in the country, a workforce with natural skills, a strategic location for exports and infrastructure airport, which contribute to increasing the competitiveness of the textile chain in Ceará. Large companies in the sector such as Vicunha, Unitêxtil, TBM and Santana Textiles are in the state.

The latter alone, based in Horizonte (CE), presents in its plants in the Northeast a demand for lint equivalent to 41 thousand hectares of cotton, calculated by the average productivity of 2019, reveals Daniel Olinda, director of Nova Agro, an agricultural company partner of Santana Textiles. “Currently, 98% of our feather is purchased in Bahia. There is still a lot of room for producers to invest and the demand exists,” he says. The cotton-producing region of Bahia is 1.600 km from Fortaleza and road transport makes the product very expensive.

To encourage the expansion of production in the state, the company provides mechanized harvesting services and guarantees the purchase of all production at a price that today would be R$2,15 per kilogram of seed cotton. “As this is a very high investment for those just starting out and the harvester is specific to the crop, we provide this service”, says the director.

According to him, this harvest has already registered more than 1.800 hectares with guaranteed cotton purchase and part of this area will be for mechanized harvesting. Currently, cotton production in Ceará is concentrated in three main hubs: Cariri, Sertão Central and Chapada do Apodi. 

One third of the cost of the Cerrado

Embrapa researcher Fábio Aquino de Albuquerque, who works at the Experimental Field in Barbalha (CE), observes cotton's better performance in drought compared to other crops. “Since 2019, we started producing on a new technological base adapted to the region. We still have technical adjustments to make to the system, but this is something that occurs across the country,” he notes. “With the technology we have today, Ceará has all the conditions to have high productivity and quality cotton, with a production cost equivalent to between 30% and 50% when compared to the cotton currently produced in the Cerrado. In these two harvests, we observed that with little rain, cotton stands out from other crops”, he adds.

Embrapa analyst Gildo Araújo, who works in the same municipality, assesses that the state, as well as practically the entire Semiarid region, has all the conditions to produce excellent quality fiber with the resistance, fineness and length desired by the industry. “I believe this is the big difference. We need to adapt to be competitive, this requires a lot of professionalism from all parties. We need to advance in all areas, research, technical assistance, appropriate management for the region, investment in agricultural machinery, among other factors. Today's cotton requires different management than that practiced in the past, if the farmer believes and follows the technical guidelines, we have a promising scenario ahead”, he declares.

The general manager of Embrapa Algodão, Liv Soares Severino, assesses that the cotton produced in Ceará is capable of standing out for its quality. “The local textile industry realized the high quality of the product and this greatly increased interest in cotton from Ceará. This was achieved through the use of modern varieties, such as Embrapa's BRS 433FL B2RF, which was selected for these characteristics. And the region’s climate is favorable to the crop, as the cotton plant grows best in a high-light environment such as the Ceará hinterland,” he says.

Agronomist Wilson Ferreira, technical coordinator of the company Terra Fértil, based in Limoeiro do Norte (CE), says that in some areas of the municipality cotton reached a productivity of five thousand kilos per hectare, which is equivalent to the productivity of the Cerrado, with a maximum of six insecticide applications. “But this requires well-done planning. The cultivars available on the market are very good, what is missing is good nutritional management and pest management”, he advises.

According to him, it is possible to obtain good profitability from dryland cotton cultivation. “Here we have done our best to take advantage of the full potential of the materials, with everything grown in rainfed areas. To be successful in the crop, it is essential to take advantage of the planting window so that the time of greatest water need coincides with the rains,” he notes. “With a production cost of R$4, it is possible to produce four thousand kilos of cotton per hectare, which gives a gross income of almost R$9”, he calculates.

The rebirth of a cotton industry after the boll weevil

For Albuquerque, one of the main barriers to the expansion of the crop is the fear of the boll weevil, the main pest of the crop and one of those responsible for the decline of cotton farming in the state. “The first difficulty we faced in implementing the program was getting producers to believe again that cotton is a profitable crop. The boll weevil is still a very strong taboo in the region. Many ask: 'But what about the boll weevil no longer being a pest?' The answer is no. The boll weevil is still an important pest of cotton, but the knowledge we have accumulated and the technology used today allows us to produce quality cotton even with the presence of the insect. To achieve this, technical-scientific knowledge must reach the producer”, he advises.

One of the pioneers in resuming cotton cultivation in Ceará was producer Marcos Landim, from the municipality of Missão Velha, in the Cariri region of Ceará. He remembers that the region was once a major cotton producer. “My grandfather had cotton factories, in my city alone (Missão Velha, CE), he had five industries, four for cotton and one for oil and cake (waste). The boll weevil came and destroyed it all. When the boll weevil arrived, we did not have the technology to combat it and we lost the fight against the insect. We hadn’t produced cotton for about 30 years,” he says. “Nowadays, we have technology to predict how many boll weevils will be in an area and when they will attack”, he adds.

With the support of the program, Landim resumed cultivation in an experimental area of ​​30 hectares and in the current harvest it was expanded to 80 hectares. “In the beginning, producers were discredited by the culture. I planted it with guidance from Embrapa and they saw the results and got excited,” he reports.

Producer José Morais Filho, from the municipality of Milagres, also in Cariri, Ceará, cultivated 50 hectares of cotton in the last harvest and was satisfied with the results. In 2020, he tripled the plantation. Morais had also cultivated cotton for more than 20 years and stopped cultivating the lint because of the boll weevil. 

“Last year we planted 50 hectares, with an average productivity of 2.500 kg/ha, using transgenic seed with tolerance to glyphosate and resistant to caterpillars. This was a factor that led us to return to planting cotton. Furthermore, we have a lot of summer here and cotton is much more resistant than corn,” he says.

Morais believes that if all producers comply with the sanitary void, which in Ceará runs from October 1st to December 31st, the boll weevil will not be able to make farming unviable. “When the harvest ended, we used the mower, then put the cattle to use the crop residues. This meant I was able to keep the area free of live plants until January, when we went in with the mechanical part and eradicated the rest,” he reports. “Adagri in our region carries out three inspections on average: one when we register the area, one during the cycle and the third to check whether we are complying with the sanitary void”, he adds.

cotton seeds 

Another bottleneck for the expansion of the area was the supply of certified cotton seeds. To meet this demand, Embrapa Algodão entered into a partnership with the company Semilla Sementes, which is multiplying seeds of transgenic cultivars BRS 368 RF and BRS 433FL B2RF for the next harvest. Around 11 tons of BRS 368RF seeds will be produced - which will be enough to cultivate around 860 hectares - and 71,68 tons of BRS 433FL B2RF seeds, enough to plant around 5.500 hectares.

Seed multiplication fields for the conventional cultivar BRS 286 (non-transgenic) are also being installed, through a partnership signed by Embrapa with producer Francieli Silva. The expectation is to have seeds to plant 540 hectares in the next harvest. 

The head of Technology Transfer at Embrapa Algodão, João Henrique Zonta, highlights that the use of seeds that are not certified is a risk for the producer and the Ceará Agricultural Defense Agency, with the Ministry of Agriculture, are monitoring the trade of this type of seed to prevent low seed quality from compromising the growth of cotton production in the state. “The objective of Embrapa and its licensed partners is to offer seeds with technology to serve all producers in the region, from those who grow organically, conventionally, on small family farms, to the most technologically advanced, with high-tech transgenic materials, with resistance to caterpillars and herbicides, and high fiber quality, including materials suitable for planting refuge areas”, he states.