West of Bahia will have climate risk zoning for corn-brachiaria consortium

Producers in Western Bahia will be able to access agricultural insurance for the corn-brachiaria consortium from the next harvest. With the implementation of Agricultural Climate Risk Zoning (Zarc), this arrangement may be more widely adopted in the region.

Especially in this area of ​​the state, where the soils are sandy, brachiaria contributes greatly to the development of crops, as this grass helps to build the soil profile, helping with the infiltration and storage of water in the soil for successive crops, in addition to contribute to the control of diseases and weeds. Its consortium with corn guarantees better productivity and greater sustainability of agricultural production.

Zarc carries out risk analysis, considering climate variability, soil characteristics and the ecophysiology of the crop, and indicates the most suitable time for planting. Zoning is part of the Agricultural Activity Guarantee Program (Proagro), in addition to being used by several financial institutions to grant rural credit.

The tool was built from mathematical models with climate information and data generated in agricultural research areas. However, in order for it to be truly adapted to the reality of the region, Embrapa includes the validation stage by the production sector.

In Luís Eduardo Magalhães (BA), the technical meeting held on the 16th was attended by around 30 people, including rural producers, consultants, public managers, representatives of banks, cooperatives and the private sector.

Presentations were made on the management and management of grain crops in the face of climate variations and the methodology used, in addition to a demonstration of the Zarc Plantio Certo mobile application. 

Important contributions emerged during the discussions, such as the suggestion to increase the network of meteorological stations with the incorporation of private bases accredited by the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), as there are few official bases in the region. This way, there will be an increase in the database for creating maps for the following years. 

According to the Technology Transfer supervisor at Embrapa Cerrados, Sérgio Abud, it is important to listen to the opinion of rural producers to understand the reality in which they work, whether the risks they consider are the same as those identified by the research. “Validation provides greater security for coordinators in relation to data obtained in experimental research areas”, he explains.

“Zarc is the result of the long-standing battle of the productive sector to reduce the risk of agricultural activity, and which is only possible with interaction between the public and private sectors”, commented researcher Fernando Macena, adding that one of the priority goals of the Agir Program – Agro Integrated Risk Management (ProAgir), recently launched by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (Mapa), is the expansion and continuous improvement of the method.

The Embrapa Cerrados team also visited some rural properties in the region to understand the moment they are going through, with the delay in the start of the rains, and guided producers on how the tool can be used to help them choose the best planting periods. when there is little rain, as has been the case in recent years. 

Zarc

Technological risk analysis tool that considers climate variability, soil characteristics and ecophysiological characteristics of the crop, Zarc allows you to quantify the risk for each sowing time and for each location, indicating the most appropriate planting time, in addition to contributing for increasing agricultural production and productivity, as well as rationalizing agricultural credit, reducing losses, protecting soil and the environment.

Adopted as public policy since 1996, the methodology was developed by Embrapa, currently involving 25 research units and more than 100 researchers in improving and updating the model for more than 40 crops, covering 24 Federation Units. The recommendations generate ordinances through Mapa, allowing access to Proagro, Proagro Mais and the federal subsidy for rural insurance premiums.

For researcher Fernando Macena, from Embrapa Cerrados, there is great difficulty in building Zarc for the corn-brachiaria consortium, as it is a Crop-Livestock Integration (ILP) system, which can be implemented in different ways and with different objectives. . “It is difficult to contemplate this dynamic. There are producers who apply herbicides (to dry out the brachiaria), others want to graze. That’s why it’s complex to develop Zarc for this consortium,” he said. 

Of the almost 15 million hectares of Crop-Livestock-Forest Integration (ILPF) systems in Brazil, according to the 2017 IBGE Agricultural Census, 83% represent ILP systems such as the corn-brachiaria consortium, which provide several economic benefits, such as increasing the production of grains, meat and milk; social, such as job creation; and environmental, such as mitigating greenhouse gases, carbon sequestration and reducing pressure to open new areas.

A particularity of the intercropping is that it consumes more rainwater than the single corn crop, shortening the planting window. “On the other hand, brachiaria, which does not suffer as much from dry spells, prepares a greater profile for soil exploitation, providing more water to the system. The plant that limits the system is corn”, explained the researcher.

Zarc aims to indicate the most appropriate dates or periods for sowing corn intercropped with brachiaria by municipality, considering the characteristics of the climate, the type of soil and the cycle of the cultivar, in order to prevent climatic adversities from coinciding with the most sensitive crops, minimizing agricultural losses.

Data on climate (rainfall, reference evapotranspiration, minimum temperature every 10-day period), soil (effective depth of the root system and water storage capacity) and corn crop (cycle, phases of growth) are used as input parameters. plant, crop coefficient for water consumption and root system depth). These parameters generate the Water Need Satisfaction Index (ISNA) for the critical phases of the crop, which in the case of corn are planting/emergence and flowering and fruiting. 

To indicate planting dates in ten days (10-day periods), the methodology takes into account the crop cycle (early, medium or late) and classifies the soils according to texture – sandy (clay content between 10% and 15% and low water retention capacity), medium (15% to 35% clay and medium water retention capacity) or clayey (35% or more clay and high water retention capacity). 

This information is based on Zarc maps, which indicate the climatic risk of planting/sowing every ten years in different regions of the country. The risk can vary from 80% (eight years of successful planting every 10 years), 70% (seven years of success every 10 years) or 60% (six years of success every 10 years). “We are not saying that the producer cannot plant outside these dates, we are talking about the risks”, explained Macena.

For the audience present, the researcher demonstrated the use of the tool by simulating the risks of planting harvest and off-season corn in consortium with brachiaria in different ten-year periods, considering some cycles (early and medium) and soil types (medium and clayey). He explained that the ten-year series are updated to take into account dry spells and adverse weather events such as the El Niño and La Niña phenomena, which produce different effects depending on the region of Brazil.