Asian Rust causing losses of $ 25 billion in soybean in Brazil

Silvesio de Oliveira, the representative o f Agriculture and Livestock Confederation of Brazil (CNA), defends more agility of the government in the release of new pesticides registrations, especially fungicides.

The lack of an adequate control of Asian Rust, a plague that affects the soybean crop has already caused losses of $ 25 billion since the 2003/2004 harvest for only this crop, says Silvesio de Oliveira, at the public hearing in the Committee on Agriculture and Land Redistribution (CRA) of the Senate to discuss the socio-economic impacts of the disease on soybean. In his presentation, he also showed data suggesting losses of the order of $ 1 billion last season only in Mato Grosso, which is equivalent to 15 sacks less in this product sales, depending on the variety of seed, compromising almost 30% of the farmer’s income, on average.

If Mato Grosso produces a third of the country’s soybean, it can be said that the soybean production in the whole country had a loss of $ 3 billion last season. According to him, the rust has damaged not only the production, but the creation of new jobs, the cities economies and husbandry, since soy is used in breeding and feeding of animals.

Given this context, he defends more agility by the government in releasing the new pesticide registrations, especially fungicides, which are usually more used to combat this rust.

It is necessary to expand the number of products available in the market because the ones we have are losing effectiveness – he explained.

The Asian Rust is a fungal disease that spreads rapidly due to the efficient spread of the fungus spores by wind. The conditions that favor its development are temperatures around 24ºC and 6 hours of wetting in the cultivated areas. The early shed that stops the complete grain formation, as a reduction in productivity, is the main symptom presented by crops.