An
omnipresent
field
Vertiginousstridesmadebythe
soybean
fieldsinallregionsacrossBrazil
inducestheAbrasstoprogramitselfwiththeaimtomeetthenewdemandsinarea
W
hile the year 2017 comes
as a recovery period for
the Country’s economy,
the return of the politi-
cal crisis has again jeop-
ardized the development of the nation. This
is envisioned by agronomic engineer Leon-
ardo Machado, executive secretary of the
Brazilian Association of Soybean Seed Pro-
ducers (Abrass), who considers the year
challenging for the sector. The official main-
tains that the drop in the price of the com-
modity has also jeopardized the develop-
ment of the supply chain – which increases
the risk for the farmers and reinforces the
need for caution and cost reduction.
Despite the reflections of the crisis on the
soybean seed market, which resulted into
smaller margins and difficulties in commer-
cializingtheinput,Machadoreiteratesthatthe
Abrassbelieves inbigger productionvolumes,
as climate conditionswere favorable through-
out most soybean growing regions. Further-
more, he recalls that the supply chain has
undertaken to produce soybean seeds at vol-
umes proportional to the area planted to this
crop in the Country. “Therefore, while there is
evolution of the oilseed in Brazil, the produc-
tionofseedwillkeeponaparwiththisgrowth
rate”,heguarantees.
In the realmof conquests, Abrasspoints to
theunionof the segment, through thegrowth
of the entity itself. “Currently, we have associ-
ations in 11 states, plus in the Federal District,
which, together, represent upwards of 70 per-
cent of the national production of seed”, he
emphasizes. Now the production of soybean
seeds in the Country is present in the states
of Minas Gerais, Tocantins, Goiás, Mato Gros-
so,MatoGrossodoSul, SãoPaulo, RioGrande
do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná and in the so-
called region of Matopiba (initials of the fol-
lowing states:Maranhão,Tocantins,Piauíand
Bahia). “There are several relevant soybean
producing regions, eachonewith itspeculiari-
tiesandcharacteristics”,heexplains.
Machado understands that the continu-
ity of the integration of the producers plays
a fundamental role for the future of the sec-
tor and tends to result into the production of
excellent soybean seed, which takes into ac-
count thepillar of theBrazilianagroindustrial
complex.Within this context, hebelieves that
fighting piracy should be a major concern of
all people in the seed producing business,
seeing that piracy is causing huge damages
to our national agribusiness. “Abrass officials
have worked jointly with the Mapa towards
improving the legislation that tries to put an
endtoseedpiracy,besidesconductinganan-
nual campaign focused on the risks that this
practice causes to all the links of the supply
chain”, he recalls.
n
Sílvio Ávila
49
