Climate change and its damages are coming into focus in Brazil’s agricultural sector

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – In the last six years, extreme weather events have caused Brazilian cereal producers to suffer crop failures in at least three harvests and reduced harvest volumes compared to the previous season.

According to the National Supply Company (Conab), this is the case in the current cycle, which has seen heavy losses in corn crops and problems in coffee and sugarcane crops.

The production sector is aware of the challenge highlighted in the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report and advocates investment in research, technology, and technical assistance to adapt production systems and develop more sustainable production models.

The data compiled by the U.N. scientists underscores the urgency of putting an end to illegal deforestation in the country, which damages the image of the agricultural industry, affects rainfall in the Midwest (the main grain-growing region), and increases greenhouse gas emissions, all on account of farmers.

“Any effort by the agriculture industry to reduce emissions is useless if deforestation continues. It neutralizes the country’s emissions and makes them negative,” Eduardo Assad, researcher at Embrapa Informática Agropecuária, told Valor. “Either the agricultural sector clearly positions itself against deforestation, or it will lose the market.” According to him, greenhouse gas emissions from livestock increased by 6% between 2010 and 2016, and those from tree cutting and land alteration by 54%.

Assad said that soybeans, corn, coffee, and livestock pastures are the most vulnerable crops and risk climate change. The solution, he says, is to stop deforestation and restore permanently protected areas (APPs) such as riparian forests to ensure water supplies for irrigation, which is essential to overcome long droughts and erratic rainfall. There are 12 million hectares of APPs in the Amazon and Cerrado (savanna) that need to be replanted.

A study by researcher Evandro Silva of the Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture (Esalq/USP), published in the European Journal of Agronomy, emphasizes that climate change will increase the risk of soybean crop losses in Brazil in the coming years. Soybeans are among the most climate-resilient grains, adding concerns about other major crops – such as corn.

With less rain and higher temperatures, the soybean cycle will also be shorter, but the plants will be able to manage water better and more “sparingly.” According to the study, the trend increases between 1.5ºC and 3ºC from 2049 to 2060, with an average peak of 2.2ºC. Rainfall is expected to be between 4.5% and 7.9% lower during this period.

For the CEO of the Brazilian Agribusiness Association (Abag), Marcello Brito, there is still a lack of sectoral movement and government policy against the environmentally damaging violations of the law. “We must fight head-on against all deforestation and adopt sustainable techniques at the national level,” he said. With its representativeness, Brazil would exert the pressure it exerts on other countries,” said the head of the association.

“We come to international forums weakened. Losing this global leadership position because we do not exert pressure on criminals, deforestation, mining, land grabbing, and the resulting deforestation is a serious mistake that has a high price,” judged farmer and rancher Pedro de Camargo Neto, former president of the Brazilian Rural Society (SRB) and former Secretary of Production and Trade at the Ministry of Agriculture.

Source: Valor