Brazil will plant the smallest bean area in the last three decades

The reduction of bean planting areas in Brazil is an alarming case.

According to data from the National Supply Company (Conab), in the 2021/22 harvest, the country will have the smallest cultivated area with beans since 1976.

Even with technological and research advances, it is impossible to increase productivity to equaling the loss of planted areas.

Meanwhile, according to data from the Brazilian Bean, Pulses, and Special Crops Institute (Ibrafe), the consumption of the Brazilian population is around 223 thousand tons of beans.

The main one is the lack of one of the main products of the Brazilian basic food basket on the table of the population, followed by the price increase on the shelves, which ends up limiting the purchasing power of most families.

In other words, there is a lack of food in any form, whether due to scarcity or price.

“We haven’t had surpluses for a long time. Every cowpea harvested is immediately consumed. We will open the year with a reduction of 13% in Paraná.

“It means there will be no significant setbacks at harvest time in January and February.

“We are surveying the planting areas in the other states, especially Minas Gerais, which should plant the largest area of this first harvest”, said the president of Ibrafe, Marcelo Eduardo Lüders.

COMPETITION

One of the main factors that caused the decrease in areas is the direct competition with soy and corn, commodities with a large foreign market with pre-fixed values.

While the area planted with soybean grew more than five times, or 460%, from 6.9 million hectares to 38.9 million hectares, and corn almost doubled, from 11.7 million hectares to 19.9 million, beans, on the other hand, kept losing space.

It is the crop with the largest estimated area reduction, totaling 1.048 million hectares in the next decade. Rice comes second, with a loss of 1.046 million hectares.

THE FUTURE OF BEANS

But these numbers can get even worse.

According to projections from the Ministry of Agriculture and Supply (Mapa), the current dynamics should extend for at least the next ten years.

It is expected that between the 2020/21 and 2030/31 harvests, the area planted with soy will expand by 26.8%, covering 48.8 million hectares.

As if lower production were not enough, Brazil faces a second problem: the lack of storage.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) recommends that a country has at least three months of stock of its basic products, especially those sensitive to crop failures and difficult to import, which is the case of beans.

According to information from Conab, public stocks of beans in the country were reduced considerably in 2016 and have been completely zero since 2017.

Deficient production and a lack of public stocks mean that the country is increasingly dependent on imports.

INCENTIVE

Thinking of collaborating to change this scenario, Ibrafe developed the Bean Rally project, which will cover a circuit of 2,100 km through the main producing centers of Mato Grosso for 12 days – between November 28 and December 9.

The focus is to sensitize, besides rural producers, the entire network that contributes to agricultural activity, such as cooperatives, cereal producers, agronomists, and agricultural technicians.

The main purpose is to help those present see the market opportunities, considering the evolution of consumption and other indicators, analyzed daily by Ibrafe, in addition to talking to local and regional public authorities to make them aware of the importance of promoting bean production.

With information from Canal Rural