For the second consecutive year, unfavorable climatic conditions – especifically the lack of rain – were determinant for the decrease in the Brazilian production of cereals, legumes and oilseeds, which amounted in the year 2005, to 112.697 million tons, 5.2% less than in 2004 and 9.1% less than in 2003, year of the biggest national harvest (124.285 million tons).  The reduction was mainly influenced by corn (-6.6 million tons or –15.9%) and by wheat (-1.1 million tons or –19.9%).

Although the total of the planted area increased approximately 736 thousand hectares (without considering sunflower and triticale), as a consequence mainly of the expansion of soybeans (8.5%), products such as corn (-4.7%), wheat (-15.9%) and beans (-8.3%), essential to the basic food basket of Brazilians, had reduction in their planted areas.  With an expectation of production of 134.906 million tons for the harvest 2005, according to the Systematic Survey of Agricultural Production (LSPA), in December 2004, the  decrease in the harvest in the end of the previous year was approximately 20.852 million tons (-15.5%).  The value of production of R$ 48,206 billion, was approximately 24.0% less than in 2004, mainly due to the fall in the prices of soybeans.  Regarding municipalities, the major producers of the main grains were the following: Sorriso (MT) for  soybeans; Lucas do Rio Verde (MT) for corn; Assis Chateaubriand (PR) for wheat; Cristalina (GO) for beans; Santa Vitória do Palmar (RS) for rice; São Desidério (BA) for herbaceous cotton; Lapão (BA) for castor beans; and Rio Verde (GO) for sorghum.

Mato Grosso was the state which most contributed to the national production (22.4%). It is the major producer of soybeans, herbaceous cotton and sunflower in Brazil. Besides having expanded the planted areas of these products, the state also invested in new products, such as peanuts.  Regarding this product the state occupies the third position in the national ranking.  Soybeans still is the product with the major importance in the state, answering for 70.0% of the harvest and for 53.6% of the value of production.

Paraná follows in second place in the ranking of national production (19.6%). It is the major producer of corn, wheat, oats and triticale and also stands out in relation to soybeans and beans, in which it has the second position.  The use of technologies such as the direct seeding and crop rotation as well as the climate favor the crops of summer and winter in the same area.

 
Rio Grande do Sul, which has similar conditions as the ones of Paraná, has suffered in the last two years with the lack of rain in its summer products. Still, it was the third state that most contributed to the national production of cereals, legumes and oilseeds.
Soybeans and corn were responsible for 45% and 31% of the national production of cereals, legumes and oilseeds, respectively, according to the graph below.

 
Graph 1. Percentage distribution of the production of cereals, legumes and oilseeds – Brazil 2005

Source: IBGE, Diretoria de Pesquisas, Coordenação de Agropecuária, Produção Agrícola Municipal, 2005.

Mato Grosso has eight municipalities among the ten major producers of soybeans in the country

Soybeans had a production of 51,182,050 t, maintaining the condition of main crop of grains in the country, although 2005 was not a good year for the production of soybeans in the country. The expectation of production was of more than 63 million tons, which did not in fact occur mainly due to the drought in Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Paraná, Santa Catarina and especially, in Rio Grande do Sul.

In the crops of Rio Grande do Sul, the loss was significant.  In January 2005, an annual harvest of 8,804,895 t was expected, but the state only harvested 2 444 540 t.  The average yield of 654 kg/ha was the lowest registered for the production of soybeans in Rio Grande do Sul, which lost positions in the national ranking, changing from the 4th position in 2004 to the 6th in 2005, after Mato Grosso do Sul and Minas Gerais.

Mato Grosso is the main producer of soybeans (35% of the total).  Following it are Paraná (19%), Goiás (14%), Mato Grosso do Sul (7%), Minas Gerais (6%), Rio Grande do Sul and Bahia (with 5% each), São Paulo (3%), Maranhão (2%) and the other producing states (5%).
The value of production of soybeans in 2005 summed R$ 21,758 billion.  The ton cost R$ 425.11 on the average, which represented a considerable fall in relation to 2004, when the value was R$ 658.48.

The ten major producing municipalities of soybeans are in the following table.

A municipality of Mato Grosso, Lucas do Rio Verde, also leads the production of corn, which totaled, in the country, 35.134 million tons,  a fall of 15.9% in relation to 2004.  The planted area was 11.558.556 ha, and the average yield, 3,039 kg/ha.  The South Region brought the major participation in the national production of corn 1st harvest.  Regarding the 2nd harvest, the Central West was the leader.

Among the states, Paraná was the first in the production of the cereal (8,572,364 t).  Following it, came Minas Gerais (6,243,873 t); São Paulo (4,093,896 t); Mato Grosso (3,506,229 t); Goiás (2,853,738 t); Santa Catarina (2,695,211 t); Bahia (1,616,464 t); Rio Grande do Sul (1,485.040 t) and Mato Grosso do Sul (1,291,901 t).

A total of 5,314 Brazilian municipalities inform the planting of corn; it is the product with greatest national coverage.  The ten major producing municipalities of the cereal in 2005 were the following:

Municipalities of RS lead the production of rice

The production of rice in husk was 13,191,885 t in 2005, 0.6% lower than in 2004.  From one year to the next, the positions of the seven major producing states did not change: Rio Grande do Sul (46% of the national production); Mato Grosso (17%); Santa Catarina (8%); Maranhão and Pará (approximately 5% each); Tocantins (4%); and Goiás (3%).

Among the major producers of rice in 2005, there were 24 municipalities of Rio Grande do Sul, which summed 33.68% of the national production.  The major contribution came from Santa Vitória do Palmar, which surpassed Uruguaiana, the major producer in 2004, whose income in 2005 fell due to drought.  There also was reduction in RS in the production of the municipalities of Camaquã (-10.9%), São Sepé (-14.9%), Maçambara (-26.9%) and Bagé (-9.0%).  The ranking of the ten major producing municipalities is the following.

In Mato Grosso, the main producing municipality was Nova Ubiratã; in Pará, Santarém; in Tocantins, the major producers came from Formoso do Araguaia and Lagoa da Confusão.

The total value of the production fell to 64% between 2004 (R$ 7.757 billion) and 2005 (R$ 4.993 billion), due to the reduction in the average value of the ton, from R$ 584.27 to R$ 378.54.

Assis Chateaubriand (PR) reaches the top in the ranking of the production of wheat

The national production of wheat was 4.658.790 t, approximately 20% less than in 2004.  The decrease was related to the lower planted area, a consequence, among others, to the low prices of the product, of the high risk of the product and the decapitalization of producers due to problems with the summer harvest.

The South Region was responsible for more than 90% of the national harvest - Paraná produces 59%, and Rio Grande do Sul, 30%.  The major municipality producer of wheat is Assis Chateaubriand (PR). Although having a fall in productivity in relation to 2004, the municipality increased its planted area by 10.000 ha, which led to an increase of 28% in the production, making it pass Tibagi (PR) and Palmeira das Missões (RS), the two major producers of wheat in 2004. The 96,000 t produced in Assis Chateaubriand represent 2.06% of the national production and 3.47% of the production of Paraná.  The ten major producing municipalities of wheat are in the following table.

Harvest of herbaceous cotton presents positive numbers in Bahia

Although the national production of herbaceous cotton (in seed) fell by 3.5% in 2005 (amounting to 3.666.160 t), Bahia, the second major state producer (822.401 t or 22.4% of the total), registered an increase of 16.8% in the harvest.  The positive numbers of the production of Bahia occurred due to the displacement of the production to the west of the state, which has appropriate climatic conditions for the harvest and has been benefited, since 2001, by the Proalba (Program of Harvest Incentive in the Cerrado Baiano), of the state government.  The municipality of São Desidério (BA) changed from the fifth place in the national ranking of production of herbaceous cotton in 2004 to the major national producer in 2005 (363.032 t).

Mato Grosso continued as the major national producer (1.682.839 t), despite the reduction of 10.7% in relation to the harvest of 2004.  Twenty municipalities can be found in the state among the 35 major producers of cotton in Brazil.  The ten main producing municipalities are in the table below.

Production of beans in MG is greater than in PR

In 2005, Minas Gerais (559.570 t) slightly surpassed Paraná (557.019 t), the major national producer of beans until then.  The product is harvested in all the states, among which five (MG, PR, BA, GO and SP) were responsible for approximately 69% of the total harvest.

The national production of beans in 2005 amounted to 3.021.495 t, an increment of 1.8% compared to the previous year, a consequence of the increase in the average yield, from 745 kg/ha in 2004 to 806 kg/ha in 2005 – once the planted area, of 3.748.407 ha, was smaller than the one of the previous year (3.978.660 ha).

Bahia, with a production of 461.928 t, 39.5% more than in 2004, continued in the third position in the national ranking. Goiás (280.461 t) surpassed São Paulo (246.732 t). The ten major municipalities in terms of production of beans in 2005 are in the table below.

Goiás also leads the harvest of sorghum, with 33% of the national production of 1.520.539 t.  Rio Verde (GO) was the major producing municipality (6.4% of the national and 19% of the state harvest), despite the reduction of 29% in the production. In Minas Gerais, the second major state producer, Conceição das Alagoas was the municipality with the major harvest, which had an increment in relation to 2004 due to the introduction of 17.000 ha into the productive system.  The second major producing municipality of sorghum was São Gabriel do Oeste (MS), responsible for 5.9% of the national production and for half of the state production.

Production of castor beans increased for the second consecutive year

In 2005, the production of castor beans was 168.059 t, an increase of 21.1% in relation to 2004. It was the second consecutive increase in the harvest, which, between 2003 and 2004, had an increase of 64.9%.

The major producer is Bahia, responsible for approximately 79% of the total, with a harvest of 132.324 t, 15.9% higher than in 2004. The ten major producing municipalities of castor beans are from Bahia: Lapão, São Gabriel, Cafarnaum, Ibititá, Canarana, Mulungu do Morro, Morro do Chapéu, Ibipeba, América Dourada and João Dourado.  Besides Bahia, stand out the states of Ceará, Minas Gerais and Piauí.

The harvest has had, since the beginning of the nineties, a decrease in terms of planted area and production.  In 1985, for example, the country produced 415.879 t, which represents almost 2.5 times the production of 2005.  There are several reasons for the decadence such as disorganization of the small internal market, lack of research, absence of incentives and of special credit conditions, absence of technical help and mainly low prices paid to the producer.  Since 2004, due to government as well as private enterprise in agribusiness, castor beans has gained in production. 

The harvested area of peanuts had an increase of 30%, in relation to 2004, providing an increase of 33% in the production, which reached 314.906 t. São Paulo is responsible for 72% of the national production. Stand out, due to the increase in the harvested area, the states of Goiás (10.579 ha), Mato Grosso (14.495 ha) and Tocantins (3.679 ha), indicating a possible expansion of the product towards the savannah, where the land is cheaper, and the climate is favorable. The major producing municipality of Brazil is Jaboticabal (SP).  Among the ten major producers, only Campo Novo dos Parecis (second in the ranking) in Mato Grosso, is not in São Paulo.

Oats is one of the main winter harvesting options in the South of the country. The national production was 522.428 t, with an increase of 13.7% in relation to 2004.  Paraná answered for 75% of the harvest, being Castro and Tibagi the major producers. Rye is harvested in the South Region and in Mato Grosso do Sul. The total planted area was 4.683 ha, with a production of 6.109 t, being 75% in Rio Grande do Sul, where are located the major producing municipalities, such as Salto do Jacuí and Santo Augusto.

The production of barley is also concentrated in the South Region, with the exception of small areas in Goiás. Rio Grande do Sul is responsible for 60% of the national harvest, which had a reduction of 18% in relation to 2004. Paraná is the second major producer (36% of the total).  The municipality of Guarapuava (PR) was the major national producer. The harvest of sunflower was 60.735 t in 2005 and had a reduction approximately of 21%. Mato Grosso leads the ranking of producing states (36% of the total), and the major producing municipality is Chapadão do Céu (GO).

Among the 136.085 ha of triticale (result of the artificial crossing of wheat and rye) planted in Brazil, 65% are in Paraná and 18% in São Paulo.  The production had an increase of 25% in relation to 2004. The municipality with greatest production was Itapeva (SP), followed by Toledo (PR). Paraíba was responsible for 89% of the harvest of arboreous cotton, which was 2.126 t, 26.7% lower than in 2004.  The state has the ten major producing municipalities in Brazil, led by São José do Sabugi.