Agricuture
March estimate for 2020 crops grows 1.5% and keeps record
April 09, 2020 09h00 AM | Last Updated: April 13, 2020 03h23 PM
The March estimate for the 2020 grain crops is another record, standing at 245.2 million tonnes, 1.5% higher than that obtained in 2019, then the highest ever registered, when it had reached 241.5 million tonnes. Nevertheless, the forecast for the year fell 1.6% over that released in February, a reduction of 3.9 million tonnes.
The data come from the Systematic Survey of Agricultural Production - LSPA, released today (9) by the IBGE. Among the most important changes in this third estimate of the year, the volume expected for soybeans reduced and that for rice and corn, increased. These three grains represent 93.1% of the production estimate and account for 87.3% of the area to be harvested.
"The estimate for the second crop of corn increased 1.8% and that for rice, 2.5% in March [in relation to the estimate released in February]. Highly consumed in Brazil, these products have their prices increased due to rise in the demand, so more investments in technology are expected in these crops", states Carlos Antônio Barradas, manager of the LSPA.
Concerning rice, the production estimate rose to 10.6 million tonnes, a result 3.6% higher than last year, despite the declines of 2.5% in the planted area and of 1.6% in the area to be harvested. "The current average yield, of 6.4 kilos per hectare, is one of the highest over the last years, being 5.3% higher than in 2019", highlights Barradas.
On the other hand, corn decreased in the first crop, though it accounts for only 27.2% of the output, whereas the second crop represents 72.8%. The major crops have been experiencing lack of rainfall, though the expectation for the second crop became more optimist in March than it was in February and a production of nearly 70.7 million tonnes is expected.
The manager of the survey also highlights the drop of 3.6% in the volume to be harvested of soybeans. "It is due to the long drought in Rio Grande do Sul, which is the largest producer of soybeans and recorded a retraction of 5.9 million tonnes in March. As a result, the expected average yield of this grain fell 29.8% compared with the previous month", explains Barradas, adding that the production in Rio Grande do Sul should account for 11.1% of the output in Brazil, which justifies the strong impact on the national production.
The effects of the spotty rainfall in the south of Brazil also affected Santa Catarina, whose expected average yield retracted 3.6%, impacting 3.5% on the state output compared with the previous year. Even so, the estimated national production for the year is higher than the record of the volume of soybeans posted in 2018, which was of 117.9 million tonnes.
