Rio de Janeiro – By the end of this year, the Brazilian harvest of grains, cereals, and legumes could total 256.1 million tonnes, according to the Systematic Survey of Agricultural Production (LSPA), released this Tuesday (10) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).
Despite the reduction for the fourth month straight in the estimate, the figure maintains the record-breaking level, being 0.8% above the 2020 harvest, which set the record with a production of 254.1 million tonnes.
According to the research manager, Carlos Barradas, the productivity of maize plantations was affected by the late planting of the second crop and the lack of rain during the cycle. Maize is one of the primary commodities in Brazilian agriculture, along with soybean and rice, representing 92.4% of the Brazilian harvest.
“Maize is planted after soybeans and, as soybeans were delayed, the maize planting window was shorter. Having already been planted out of season and still having less rain than expected during the growing period, the maize crop was heavily affected by climatic factors. The average yield of the cereal had a 16.7% decline,” he said.
The maize production estimate dropped 3.6%, to 91.6 million tonnes. The number is 11.3% lower than in 2020. Soybean harvest has already been completed and presented the best result in the historical series of the survey, with 133.4 million tonnes. Production was 9.8% above that of 2020. For rice, the estimate was 11.5 million tonnes in July, a 2.6% increase compared to the previous month and 4.1% over the 2020 harvest.
Translated by Elúsio Brasileiro
