The country has 40 million hectares of degraded pastures that the government intends to recover
The Brazilian agribusiness, which is expected to harvest 310.9 million tons of wheat in the 2022/2023 crop – whose exports were $159.09 billion in 2022, up 32% from a year earlier – and which is one of the largest producers of biofuels and owner of the largest herd of cattle on the planet, it has an immense capacity to keep moving forward. For this reason, in addition to the increase in productivity in recent years, it will be able to count on 40 million hectares of degraded pastures that the government intends to recover.
The area is equivalent to that of Sweden, whose territory is one of the largest in Europe, and would be the 56th largest country in the world. Land regeneration, which will require support from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, can be done through three types of processes, according to the Brazilian Agency for Agricultural Research (Embrapa). The first is direct recovery, which involves controlling weeds with herbicides and fertilizing the soil with fertilizers. This is the cheapest.
The second is renewal, based on fertilization and replanting, with or without a change of plant species. Such an alternative can cost up to three times more than the previous one.
The third consists in the rotation between cattle breeding and agricultural and/or forestry plant. This option can involve up to five times the investment, requiring mechanization, land preparation and new planting, but provides more income to producers.
It is clear that sustainable expansion of production areas is feasible. However, it must be coherent and synergistic with the set of sector policies, which have proved successful in this century, having been confirmed in the plans contained in the document of the transitional cabinet of the current government, among which I emphasize: allocation of resources for the Safra Plan and the Guarantee Program for Agricultural Activities (Proagro); technical assistance and rural extension; technology transfer to agriculture; progress of the rural environmental register; and modernization of Embrapa, including the readjustment of the budget of the institution, whose knowledge and technological promotion are fundamental.
With effective public policies, legal security on the ground, and due support for the sector, Brazilian agriculture has what it takes to continue breaking records and contribute to environmental improvements as well as the sustained growth of our economy./ENGINEER OF THE SÃO CARLOS SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING (CESE-USP), ENTREPRENEUR AND MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF AGRICULTURE (ANA)
Source: Terra
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