Center-West, region that concentrates
upwards of 70%of the national cotton crop and turns into
awhite sea at harvest time, is nowexpanding its relevance
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The panorama in Goiás
In
Goiás
, despite the 11.8% smaller planted area, totaling 26.2 thousand hectares,
and the blame goes to the shrinking of the productivity and profit rates, the cotton
farmers arebettingon the recoveryof theproductivity ratesof the fiber.Without thecli-
mate problems of 2016, the cotton crop in Goiás is supposed to soar 35.6% in produc-
tivity, to 1,603 kilograms per hectare. Carlos Alberto Moresco, president of the Goías
State Association of Cotton Producers (Agopa) understands that this performance of
the fields lends support to the efforts intended to recover the historical production lev-
els,inspiteofthesmallerareadevotedtothecrop.Thecropshouldamountto42thou-
sand tons of fiber, up 19.7% from the previous season, when the prolonged drought at
planting time and excessive precipitation at harvest took a heavy toll on the crop.
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Challenges and overcoming
Mato Grosso do Sul
is home to the highest productivity of cotton in Brazil (4,300 kilograms per hectare of seed cotton, or 1,699 kilo-
gramsperhectareoffiber)anditsperformancewasup5.1%inthisseason.Evenso,the6.4%smallerareawillreducethefieldsto28thou-
sand hectares, resulting into a 1.4% smaller crop, totaling 47.6 thousand tons. Pests, production cost and even episodes of unfavorable
microclimateinsomeregionslimitedanyexpressiveincreaseinproductivity.WalterSchlatter,presidentoftheMatoGrossodoSulAssocia-
tionofCottonProducers(Ampasul),maintainsthatateveryseasonnewchallengesariseinthecottonfields.However,despitethehighpro-
duction cost and somedifficulties outside the farmgate, the crophas continued tobemore profitable than corn, soybean andeven sun-
flower during the fallowperiod. Thiswillmakeadifference in the commercial year, andas far as the comingcrop is at stake.
Talking
tough
M
ato Grosso
accounts for
66.8%of the area devoted to
cotton in Brazil and for 67%
of the fiber. It will again be
the engine that drives Bra-
zilian cotton farming business in 2017,
with an area increase of 4.5%, to 628 thou-
sand hectares; 8.4%higher productivity, to
1,589 kilograms per hectare; and 13.3% in
production, to 998 thousand tons of fiber.
The numbers are impressive and outstrip,
for example, the numbers of many coun-
tries internationally acknowledged for the
importance of their crops.
The technological package adopted for
the crop reaches a per-hectare cost of ap-
proximately R$ 8 thousand and requires effi-
cient administration of the investments and
of the financial results if profits are to be ob-
tained.Thisvariableisalsoadeterminingfac-
tor for preventing great variations from one
seasontothenext,unlessclimaterelatedfac-
tors interfere with the crop. Bruno Nogueira,
analyst at the National Food Supply Agency
(Conab), disclosed these numbers and has
it that the production cost, the dependence
on the demand from the foreignmarket and
productive verticalization induce the farmers
to use the best set of technologies available,
ifcomparedtoall otheragriculturalactivities,
especially to theproductionof grains.
Contrary to the previous season, un-
der the influence of El Niño, in the new crop
year, weather conditions contributed to-
wards the result of the crop. In Mato Gros-
so, the favorable climate conditions were
greatly favorable to the average productivi-
ty rates achieved by the cotton plants, both
in the first and second crops. The fields of
the first cropare located in the southeastern
portion of the State and the area estimat-
ed by Conab officials amounts to 88.2 thou-
sand hectares, down 23.1% from the 114.7
thousand hectares of the previous season.
The main reason for the decrease in area is
the insertion into the production systemad-
opted by the Center-West, which makes it
possible to devote the first crop to soybeans
and, in the sequence, right after the harvest
of the oilseed, cotton comes in as a “winter
crop”. Averageproductivity is expected togo
up 6.1%, to 3,797 kg/ha.
The cultivation of cotton as second crop,
on 539.9 thousand hectares in the 2016/17
growing season, registers a riseof 11.1%, and
predominates in the west of the State. Aver-
age productivity of the fields is expected to
soar 7%, to 3,912 kg/ha. Alexandre Pedro
Schenkel, president of the Mato Grosso As-
sociation of Cotton Producers (Ampa), has it
that the cultivation system in succession to
soybean leads to agro-economic advances
(due to crop rotation) and to commercial ad-
vantages, alongwithabetter useof thenatu-
ral, humanand technological resources.
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