T
he area devoted to cotton and
its production volume may
have recededover thepast sea-
sons in Mato Grosso do Sul, fi-
nally stabilizing in the 2016/17
growing season all over the Country. The
State has had reasons enough to celebrate
the technological efficiency rates and the
adjustment of the plantations to the most
modern and acceptable international
standards. This is what is emphasized by
Adão Antonio Hoffmann, executive-direc-
tor of the South Mato Grosso State Cotton
Farmers Association (Ampasul), while sig-
naling a slight increase in planted area in
the new season.
According to Hoffmann, one of the in-
dications of the farmers’ commitment to
qualityandtosocialandenvironmentalsus-
tainabilityliesintheiracceptanceoftheprin-
ciplesof ResponsibleBrazilianCotton (RBC),
run by the Brazilian Association of Cotton
Producers (Abrapa). From the 2015/16 to
the2016/17growingseasons thenumber of
farms certified in the State more than dou-
bled, andnow74%of the fiber harvested in
Mato Grosso do Sul is certified.
“We are very satisfied with the farm-
ers who freely adhered to the call asking
them to engage in the RBC”, he says. “We
know that in the rural setting the farm-
ers face an array of obstacles to continue
producing, and even so the sector under-
stood the need to adjust”. He recalls that
the area cultivated in the State is not as
expressive as in other regions across the
Country, but all the farms in Mato Grosso
do Sul are large, and the majority of these
farms that have been certified are also
large, a fact that accounts for the expres-
sive volume of certified fiber, meaning a
lot in agribusiness terms.
Another topic celebrated by the cotton
supply chain in Mato Grosso do Sul lies in a
technology of Ultra-Low Volume (ULV) and
Low Oil Volume (LOV) for the application of
pesticides against one of the most serious
field pests. Called Week Boll Weevil Trap (or
BAS), thestate initiativeequippedwith traps
100 percent of the farms in the State, under
the close watch of the farmers. By reducing
the number of applications, the cost onpes-
ticides also drops. The initiative made the
BAS rate recede from 11.3 insects, on aver-
age, in the 2014/15 growing season to 4.6
boll weevils in the 2015/16 season, and to
only 1.5 insects in the 2016/17 crop year.
“This ispraiseworthynews”, saysHoffmann.
“Thanks to monitoring, we reduced the
number of insecticide applications from 21
or 22 two crop years ago to13or 14 applica-
tions in the past season”.
These steps forward, as well as a more
favorable remunerative market scenario,
compared to such crops as soybean and
corn, are inducing those farmers who have
left the cotton business to demonstrate in-
terest in producing cotton again. This state-
wide confidence also goes through the
construction, now in the final stage, of Am-
pasul’s own headquarters, in Chapadão do
Sul, whichwill centralize, amongother uses,
an event center and a new, modern labo-
ratory for fiber analyses and classification,
benefiting all themembers.
Number of farms certified by the RBC
INMatoGrossodoSulhasmorethandoubled,andthe
monitoringofthebollweevilatteststoitsefficiency
Ampasul
haslotstocelebrate
AdãoAntonioHoffmann
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