Cotton Field Day 2018 is held in Luís Eduardo Magalhães (BA)

This Saturday (7) the Cotton Field Day 2018 was held at the Fundação Bahia Experimental Field, in Luís Eduardo Magalhães (BA), the largest technical event in cotton farming in the state of Bahia. Organized by the Bahia Foundation, the Bahia Association of Cotton Producers (Abapa), the Brazilian Cotton Institute (IBA), the Fund for the Development of Cotton Agribusiness (Fundeagro) and the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) and partner companies, the event featured with technical, marketing and technology-oriented lectures.

Zirlene Dias Pinheiro, president of Fundação Bahia, highlighted the good numbers of this year's harvest in the state. “We had the gratification of benefiting from a year of excellent soybean productivity, and we are also seeing this result with cotton cultivation. The harvest has already started and we are very happy with the productivity achieved.”

Júlio Cézar Busato, president of Abapa, also highlighted the good numbers from this year's harvest. “We are celebrating what should be the second highest cotton productivity in the history of Bahia. Associated with the good prices that are being practiced in the market today, it will bring us help at a very important moment”, highlighted the president of Abapa.

The expectation of a good cotton harvest this season should increase the number of hectares for next year's harvest. “We will go from 263 thousand hectares this year to more than 300 thousand hectares next year and we will recover the wealth that was lost and the jobs that were suspended”, said Busato referring to the last years of drought in Western Bahia .

Cotton Field Day 2018 featured four lectures: “How to add value to cotton fiber”; “Behavior of cotton cultivars in the market”; “Economic impact of Spodoptera on cotton” and “Drones in agriculture: uses and benefits that innovate the sector”.

In addition to the high rainfall, the expectation of a good harvest in this year's harvest is a reflection of technological improvement, search and exchange of knowledge, which the Cotton Field Day brings annually to Bahia. The state is the second largest cotton producer in Brazil and events of this nature contribute significantly to this prominent position in national cotton farming.