Commodity Shuttle: Soybean production and productivity are still far from potential

If producers were better using knowledge about the crops they sow and adhering to good practices and innovation, Brazilian grain production would be at a much higher level.

This is what the numbers of entities dedicated to the search for greater productivity in crops, based on technology transfers and sustainability in production, show.

Based on the productivity yield of the largest soy producers in the five regions, national production, in the current area of ​​41 million hectares, could reach 277 million tons.

Initial forecasts for the 2021/22 crop indicated 145 million, a volume not reached due to adverse weather conditions in the period.

This finding of good productivity comes from a challenge from Cesb (Soja Brasil Strategic Committee), which encourages producers to extract as much as possible from their crops.

This year, the national champion, a producer from São Paulo, obtained 126.85 bags of soybeans per hectare in rainfed planting.

In the corn crop, another group, Getap (Tactical Group for Increase in Productivity), also annually launches a challenge for producers to increase the productivity of the cereal in the country.

In the 2021/22 summer crop, on average, the producers who participated in this challenge obtained 236 bags per hectare. This volume is well above the country’s average of 91 bags for this period, according to Conab.

Within this productivity pattern, summer corn production could have reached 64 million tons. Damaged by the weather, it stood at just 24.8 million.

These high soybean and corn yields are achieved under very special conditions. Producers choose small areas and do their best to obtain good volumes.

Projecting the result of this production carried out under very special conditions for the country as a whole is a mere numbers game.

The result of these challenges shows, however, that the producers who participate in these programs increase the average productivity of their properties year after year.

In the 2008/09 harvest, the year in which Cesb started this challenge, the audited areas obtained an average of 65.2 bags, while national productivity was 48.8 bags, according to Conab (National Supply Company).

In this year’s harvest, the areas audited by Cesb presented an average of 82 bags per hectare, 26% more than in 2008/09. The national average rose only 2.5%, to 50 bags in the period.

The experience gained with the small areas is transferred to the commercial area. This year, the weighted productivity of leading producers in rainfed soybean planting (without irrigation) reached 112.56 bags in the small areas of the challenge.

These same producers already manage a weighted average production of 78.93 bags per hectare in the commercial areas of their properties, says Veranice Borges, technical coordinator at Cesb. This productivity occurs on both small and large properties, she says.

If this average is applied to the total area sown in the country, soybean production would already be at 194 million tons.

Leonardo Sologuren, president of Cesb, says that this challenge was launched because the sector wanted to understand why soy productivity is stagnant. “It was a challenge for the producers to challenge themselves.”

For Nilson Caldas, marketing director, achieving high productivity is a long-term strategy. This challenge is important because it helps producers pass these techniques on among themselves.

This long-term work is a construction, which includes soil decompaction, biological improvement, speed in planting, in addition to management. “It’s a series of factors that lead to this high productivity.”

For São Paulo farmer Matheus Leonel Nunes, the national productivity champion, agriculture is a process in which good products must always be used.

At a time when the weather is increasingly affecting crops and costs are rising sharply, production efficiency is critical. The productivity leader in the Midwest had a climate efficiency of 68%, but achieved an agricultural efficiency of 92% in the period. Thus, for every R$ 1 invested, he obtained a return of R$ 3.9.