AMAZON: Soy superpower in Brazil

It is the big Brazilian business. Its plantations occupy an area equivalent to that of Germany's surface and it was the only sector that grew in 2020, despite the pandemic. Bolsonarist territory and the birthplace of a prosperous business class, it only fears the pressure of environmentalists and Europe

Exploring evokes opening up paths, exploring the unknown, “civilizing”. Tamires Vasconcelos' father was a pioneer when he arrived in these lands of the Brazilian Amazon four decades ago. On board an excavator, he made his living by opening clearings amid lush vegetation to build roads. With them, the colonists arrived. And the cities. Most of the indigenous natives, such as the Kayabi and Apiakás, were pushed out. And years later, the crops. Residents report colonization driven by the military dictatorship as the epic of the pioneers. The black and white photos of the landing in the 1970s contrast with the green of the soybean fields that extend to infinity. Here and there, small groups of trees.

The birthplace of the soy sector is in the heart of Brazil, in the State of Mato Grosso, about 2,300 kilometers inland from Rio de Janeiro. It is the southern flank of the Amazon, the largest rainforest in the world. These fields, trucks and silos represent the engine of the Brazilian economy. Farmer Vasconcelos, the only child of the explorer who chose to transform the field in his life, the heiress, today belongs to a prosperous business class.

Here, soy reigns. The plantations occupy about 38 million hectares (like the surface of Germany). The economic history of this continental country keeps pace with raw materials. Soy is for the 21st century in Brazil what sugar was for the 17th century, gold for the 18th and coffee for the 19th.

Present and past

Vasconcelos and the 5,100 hectares of plantation on the farm he runs - Minuano - represent the only economic sector that managed to grow during the coronavirus pandemic in Brazil. “Our main crop is soybeans, corn is second, and also rice and beans,” explains this 35-year-old agronomist, sitting in front of a coffee shop, under a tree, on a sunny March morning. Much of the soy comes from this region, which feeds cows, pigs and chickens, which in turn feed the world.

Even in the difficult situation of the coronavirus, Brazilian agribusiness is experiencing a sweet moment. Production is higher than ever, international prices soar, the value of the real is very low and they have never had such a close ally in the Presidency of the Republic as Jair Bolsonaro. The country is the first producer on the planet. For soybean entrepreneurs, the only cloud on the horizon is international pressure for growing deforestation in the Amazon, crucial to mitigating climate change.

Were it not for the fact that they speak Portuguese, it would be difficult to believe that this area of the State of Mato Grosso is Brazil. Plaid shirts, caps, hats and boots, pickup trucks have the country scent of the midwestern United States. In Sinop, as in other Brazilian cities, an imposing Statue of Liberty presides over the entrance to Havan, a department store owned by Luciano Hang, a friend of Bolsonaro. Country music, the local country, is the soundtrack of these agricultural cities, although the virus has closed the bars. This is a region unknown even to many compatriots. It does not appear on postcards. It is bolsonarista territory.

Before dawn, Vasconcelos goes from Sinop, the main city in the region, to his farm. Anyone who believes that the name derives from bell, the word that designates China, a big customer that has taken the business to unprecedented levels, is confusing things. It comes from the very origin of Sinop: it means Sociedade Imobiliária do Norte do Paraná, the neighboring state where many of the colonists came from, such as Jo?o Marcus Menegace.

Taxi driver Menegace was a child when he arrived with his parents and seven brothers in a van. “We ate on the shoulder,” he recalls. After a journey of several days, they arrived at the promised land. And they prospered. The fleet of vehicles - with almost as many cars as residents -, the gourmet store with imported delicacies and a sophisticated boutique of handbags that would not clash in the opulent area of S?o Paulo give an idea of the wealth.

Farmer Tamires Vasconcelos in a soybean field in March. She runs a farm of 5,100 hectares of crops in Sinop, in the south of the Amazon.VICTOR MORIYAMA

?

# OAgroNoPara is the slogan that has made a splash on social networks and in these lands since the coronavirus turned the world upside down. The masks recall that the pandemic still exists, but it has hardly affected business. “The reflexes of the pandemic were lesser because, when it arrived, we had already negotiated the 2020-2021 harvest”, explains the agricultural entrepreneur. The supplies were purchased and the grains were sold. Working outdoors with scarce manpower and abundant technology makes things easier in times of covid-19.

The farm she runs has little to do with the one she founded her father, Elmo Leitzke. Almost all processes adopt modern technology and the employees are qualified. They fumigate crops in small planes. Vasconcelos shows the silo built inside the property and “paid for in cash”, she says, with pride. This clear bonanza is the result, she explains, of "many years of investment in technology and research on climate, soil, seeds and crop protection products". In the local lexicon, “pesticides” are what Brazilian environmentalists call pesticides. Pesticides.

Agrochemicals are part of the technological package that, since the 1990s, has raised productivity to unforeseen levels thanks also to the most recent incorporation of transgenic seeds. The European Union, which is one of the destinations of these crops, has banned the cultivation of transgenics and the use of some pesticides allowed in Brazil, such as acephate and atrazine. In the Bolsonaro government, the authorization of new agrochemicals accelerated at a record pace: 1,000 pesticides in two years.

Between the last days of February and the first of March, torrential rains made it difficult to harvest the first soybean crop in 2021 and to plant the first corn crop. Here, everyone plants two crops, many three and some even four. Super intensive production intended mainly for export to China and the European Union. Brazil produces one third of the world's soybeans. In other words, in a few decades it has matched the United States thanks to the doubling of production per lot and the tripling of cultivated land since the 1980s, according to the analysis of Our World In Data.

The Brazilian agricultural sector earned about 1 trillion reais in 2020, according to official data. But, if we add all the economic activity that surrounds it, the contribution of agribusiness to GDP has increased in the last decade from 20% to 26% today, according to the Cepea Institute of the University of S?o Paulo, while industry and services dwindled.

Agricultural economics professor Guilherme Miqueleto, from the Federal University of Mato Grosso, lists other factors that also contributed to the spectacular increase in production: economic stability, greater legal security and “the expansion of the agricultural frontier for 15-20 years, which has up towards the north ”. Exploring the Amazon.

In other countries, they also cut down trees to make way for livestock and plantations, but nowhere does this occur with the intensity of Brazil, responsible for one third of the world's deforestation. The main culprit is cattle. Soy was among the main responsible for deforestation until 2006, when companies committed themselves to NGOs and the Government not to buy grains from illegally cleared forest lands. Without demand, the supply of this type of soy fell until it almost disappeared. The soy moratorium in the Amazon “is effective in controlling deforestation directly associated with soy,” explains Cristiane Mazzeti, environmental manager at Greenpeace. Only 2% of current production comes from illegally cleared land.

But, as grains are more profitable than cows, there are cheats. First they deforest, then they raise cattle and, over the years, voilà !, the pastures turn into crops.

NAIARA GALARRAGA GORTáZAR article to El Pais

See the full article at: https://brasil.elpais.com/brasil/2021-04-25/o-superpoder-da-soja-no-brasil.html

#maize #corn #yellowcorn #agribusiness #grain #food #beverage #foodbeverage #gulfood

#linafer