FAEP calls for a return to 140 days for soybean sowing

FAEP sent, this Wednesday (12), a letter to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (Mapa) asking for the 140-day soybean sowing calendar to come back into force in Paraná, as occurred in past harvests. The request is a reaction to Ordinance 840, from the Mapa Agricultural Defense Secretariat (SDA), which changes the planting calendar for the 2023/24 Harvest, shortening the window to 100 days. In the case of Paraná, producers will be able to sow crops between September 11th and December 19th.

Signed by the president of Faep, Ágide Meneguette, the letter argues that the recently announced measure would have impacts on harvest planning and questions the lack of dialogue with the sector. “The reduction in the sowing period [announced] to two months from its beginning [September 11] has an impact on the planning of producers, most of whom are in the pre-funding phase of the harvest. Even more so due to the fact that this change has not been widely discussed with the sector”, warns the director.

According to Mapa, the calendar was shortened as a phytosanitary measure to complement the soybean fallow period, in an attempt to reduce the spread of Asian rust, one of the most severe diseases that attack oilseed crops. The Ministry also points out that the sowing windows were defined based on data analysis from the Antirust Consortium, which detected a significant increase in cases of the disease, according to reports from the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa).

In the letter, Faep brings an important caveat on this topic. The increase in rust cases must be analyzed in perspective, within a broader period, mainly because the 2021/22 Harvest was atypical: in that cycle, Paraná faced an extreme drought, a scenario that caused rust cases to fall at the same time. lowest level ever recorded in the State. With the drop in numbers due to climate factors, it was expected that cases would rise again.

“Therefore, this percentage increase is based on comparison with the lowest number of cases in the historical rust monitoring series, resulting from the greatest drought recorded. If we consider the average of the last five years, prior to this atypical harvest [2021/22], the 83 occurrences of Asian rust in Paraná in the 2022/23 harvest are below the average of the last six harvests”, highlights the president of Faep.

Furthermore, Faep suggests that authorities continue to monitor the harvest situation, and if cases worsen, that the Ministry discuss necessary measures with the sector. “We reinforce the importance of control measures, but the abrupt and untimely change is not healthy for the engagement that we have always advocated for rural producers in our State to have”, concludes Meneguette.