The start: the CESB Challenge for the 2016/17 harvest begins

From October onwards, farmers from all Brazilian regions will be able to register their properties in the Maximum Soy Productivity Challenge, carried out by the Brazilian Soy Strategic Committee (CESB). The purpose of the Committee is to map and evaluate the techniques used that stimulate high productivity, increasing the Brazilian soybean production average, which has stagnated at around 50 bags per hectare for more than a decade. CESB launched the 2016/17 Harvest Challenge at the official start of soybean planting, in Sinop (MT), and will publish the registration calendar next week, which will be carried out via the website www.cesbrasil.org.br.

Winner in the Central-West region, in the 2014/15 harvest, consultant Antônio Cavicchioli, from Ponta Porã (MS) harvested 127 bags per hectare in that harvest, a higher productivity than the national winner of the 2015/16 harvest, which totaled 120 bags, in the city from Buri (SP). “What prevented this last harvest was excessive rainfall. The weather, sometimes bad guy, sometimes good guy, will define my goal this year”, points out Cavicchioli, who harvested 72 bags per hectare in the Desafio area in the last harvest.

Even with the rains at an inappropriate time for farming, the farmer intends to register at least two areas in the CESB Challenge, in this 2016/17 edition. Your justification for participating in this competition is also related to the profitability of the property.

In his spreadsheets for the 2014/15 harvest, Cavicchioli presented the economic advantages of participating in the CESB Challenge. In the area dedicated to commercial soybeans, it reached 72 bags per hectare, at an approximate cost of R$2,4, and a profit of R$1,7. While in the hectare registered and awarded by CESB, the cost was close to R$2,9 and the profit was R$4,4.

To compete, the producer must register areas that are not Permanent Preservation Areas (APPs) and must follow Good Agricultural Practices, in addition to labor legislation.