FAEP helps rural union change Zarc for beans

Just join a conversation with rural producers in the Southwest of Paraná to know that the farmers of Dois Vizinhos are traditional producers of off-season beans. It is a crop that comes after summer soybeans. As the grain that pairs with rice has a shorter cycle, there is time to harvest the soybeans in March, plant the beans in the same area and harvest until June, to escape the frost.

But a change in the Agricultural Climate Risk Zoning (Zarc), by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (Mapa), had called this practice into question.

On September 21, 2022, Mapa published the Zarc valid for the 2022/23 harvest. This ordinance contained new deadlines for planting beans in Dois Vizinhos and other municipalities in the region. According to this document, only bean sowings carried out until February 28th would be within Zarc.

“With this deadline, our harvest this year would be unfeasible. It was very cold in September and October, we planted the soybeans later and I estimate that we will only harvest in March”, predicts the president of the Rural Union of Dois Vizinhos, Darci Smaniotto.

According to the local union's predictions, if this measure remained in force, around 8 thousand hectares of off-season beans would no longer be cultivated in the municipality, damaging an important source of income for several producers. Faced with the situation, Smaniotto knocked on FAEP's door in September to ask for help. “FAEP technicians guided me on what to do, how to collect technical data and the region’s climate history to send to Mapa”, shares Smaniotto.

According to Ana Paula Kowalski (photo at the beginning of the article), a technician from the Technical and Economic Department (DTE) of the FAEP/SENAR-PR System, the request was to allow planting until March 20, for Group I cultivars.

“Historical data from the region demonstrate that the risk of frost in late autumn and early winter has little or no effect on the quality and yield of grains, as the crop is already at the end of its cycle. Embrapa, responsible for a broad study in this regard, updated its criteria and, as a result, reduced the period sensitive to frost, which resulted in an expansion of the planting window in several municipalities in Paraná and Santa Catarina”, he explains.

The result of the process was that the union requested a review of Zarc and Mapa published a new ordinance, allowing the planting of beans until March 20th. “We are excited. We walk around the companies and everyone is happy that we won this battle. I myself will dedicate around 80 hectares to safrinha, most of which are carioca beans”, says Smaniotto. “But on the plate, I really like a little black bean”, he laughs.

Alert for zoning compliance

Ana Paula advises rural unions, so that when they observe inconsistencies in the zoning of their municipality and region, they should follow the example of Dois Vizinhos.

“In the municipality, there was a coordination between associated producers, cooperatives, the Municipal Department of Agriculture, IDR-Paraná and agronomy professionals. As important as this articulation was the preparation of a consistent technical report supporting the request, which is essential for the analysis of the Map to occur, in accordance with the rules established in 2020”, he advises.