Brazilian experts identify lack of pesticides as structural problem

One of the strategies of the government to deal with a possible lack of pesticides for crops in the future is to anticipate registration requests for new suppliers at Anvisa, said Director of the Department of Plant Health and Agricultural Inputs at the Ministry of Agriculture, Carlos Goulart. 

Reginaldo Minaré, from the Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock of Brazil (CNA), told the deputies of the Chamber's Agriculture Committee on Friday, October 22, that the lack of pesticides has been unprecedented in the last 25 years and should last.

In addition to speeding up registrations for defensives, the government intends to talk with Chinese authorities to prioritize glyphosate shipments to Brazil. This is because Brazil needs this input to have agricultural products to export to China. For this reason, Goulart stated that technical cooperation is being negotiated between China and Brazil to reduce dependence.

“China is interested in Brazil not lacking inputs as it is an interdependent chain. It produces inputs that are brought to Brazil and converted into agricultural production. This is reverted to Brazil, generating a large surplus. The surplus that is mostly for China itself.”

Deputy Jerônimo Goergen (PP-RS), the author of the request for the hearing, suggested that the commission closely monitor the negotiations with China.

“In the short term, it is already difficult. And if we make a mistake, the medium and long terms will not happen either. This is not new. Brazil has a characteristic. We are not a proactive country; we are reactive. We run after it when the thing is already falling. And the pandemic revealed a series of processes that everyone reported here,” he said.