Latest news with #MarceloTeixeira
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Brazilian researcher who helped country's grain boom wins World Food Prize
By Marcelo Teixeira NEW YORK (Reuters) - Brazilian microbiologist Mariangela Hungria, whose research has helped farmers in the country sharply boost grain production, has been named the 2025 World Food Prize Laureate, the Iowa-based foundation organizing the prize said on Tuesday. Hungria has been a researcher for more than 40 years at Brazil's state-run agricultural center Embrapa, where she works on seeds and soil treatments that enable plants to source nutrients through soil bacteria, a particularly important development for soybean crops. Her work helped Brazil increase soybean production from around 15 million metric tons in the 1980s to more than 170 million tons today, making the country the world's largest producer and exporter of the commodity. "I was always interested in making viable the use of biological materials in commercial agriculture," Hungria told Reuters. Good soybean growth requires a lot of nitrogen for the plant, but relying on nitrogen-based chemical fertilizers was expensive for Brazilian farmers and meant the country was heavily dependent on imported fertilizers, she said. Hungria isolated strains of a soil bacteria named rhizobia and developed a way to inoculate it in the soybean seeds used in Brazil. The strains helped the soy plants extract more nitrogen from the soil, boosting their growth. The solution has since become widespread and is used in more than 40 million hectares of Brazil's roughly 48 million hectares of soy plantations. Hungria also developed other biological solutions, including using strains of Azospirillum brasilense bacteria to boost the size of roots on crops such as corn, allowing the plants to reach deeper for humidity or nutrients. The use of biological products in agriculture has grown quickly in recent years, as consumers increasingly demand food produced with fewer chemicals. The researcher will receive $500,000 for being named a Laureate. The World Food Prize was created by Norman E. Borlaug, an American agronomist who developed solutions to increase agricultural production.
Gulf Today
23-04-2025
- Business
- Gulf Today
Brazil's would-be cocoa king aims to revolutionise industry
Marcelo Teixeira, Reuters In the Brazilian state of Bahia, farmer Moises Schmidt is developing the world's largest cocoa farm. His plan is to revolutionize the way the main ingredient in chocolate is produced, growing high-yield cocoa trees, fully irrigated and fertilized, in an area bigger than the island of Manhattan that is not currently known for producing the beans. Schmidt's $300 million plan is the largest and the most innovative in that region, but not the only one. There are similar super-sized projects under development, some of them nearly as big, as well-capitalized farming groups look to apply industrial-scale agriculture expertise to cocoa production to profit from sky-high prices for the beans. If those plans work, the industry's centre of gravity could shift back to Brazil, where the cocoa tree is native, from West Africa. 'I believe Brazil will become the world's cocoa breadbasket,' Schmidt told Reuters while walking amid row after row of young cocoa trees stretching to the distance in this flat savanna land in the country's Centre-North region. He estimates that as much as 500,000 hectares (1.236 million acres) of high yield cocoa farms could be in place in Brazil in 10 years, which would produce as much as 1.6 million tons of cocoa. By comparison, Brazil currently produces only around 200,000 tons, while the world's top grower Ivory Coast harvests 10 times more than that. Ghana, the second largest global grower, produces around 700,000 tons of the beans. Currently, the global cocoa industry is in crisis. Production is failing in Ivory Coast and neighboring Ghana, which between them grow more than 60% of the world's cocoa. A potent mix of plant disease, climate change and aging plantations has led to three consecutive years of falling output. That's been bad news for chocolate lovers. Cocoa prices nearly tripled in 2024, hitting a record high of $12,931 a metric ton in December. The price has since come off to around $8,200, but remains well above the historical averages. For Schmidt and other farmers in Brazil, the crisis is viewed as an opportunity. The Schmidt Agricola family business started preparing to cultivate cocoa in 2019 after concluding with the help of an in-house assessment of the cocoa market that there would be a future supply shortfall. 'We just didn't think it would happen so soon,' he said, as he walked through the greenhouses on his farm that nurse seedlings. His planned 10,000-hectare (24,105 acres) farm would dwarf the size of the small farms in West Africa that typically span a few dozen hectares. There are large farms in other producing countries such as Ecuador and Indonesia, some of them going over 1,000 hectares (2,471 acres) in size, but still much smaller than Schmidt's planned giant. The plan is to apply large-scale agriculture techniques to the fully irrigated cocoa farm as if it were a soybean or corn field. The trees in the farm in the municipality of Riachao das Neves in the west of Bahia state will be packed together, leaving only enough room between them for mechanized watering and application of fertilizer and pesticides. Schmidt is planting 1,600 trees per hectare in the new areas, compared to only 300 trees in conventional farms. The concentration should mean a much higher yield per hectare. 'The only thing that is not mechanized yet is the fruit picking from the trees,' the farmer said. Some see this method of farming as a game changer. 'Five years from now everything we used to know about cocoa production would have changed,' said Tales Rocha, a cocoa agronomist for TRF Consultoria Agricola, a company that advises farmers in Brazil. Rocha said the savanna region in Western Bahia has the ideal topography for large scale agriculture, with its extended flat expanses. Farming groups such as Schmidt Agricola already produce soybeans, corn, cotton and fruits in thousands of hectares in Western Bahia, a region with ample water supplies. At the new farms, the cocoa trees are grown in the open, with plenty of sunlight. This contrasts with traditional cocoa plantations elsewhere in Brazil and worldwide, where cocoa trees share space with other types of trees and get some shade. Schmidt is developing high-yield trees through a seedling operation he has been running since 2019. His team has produced new cocoa varieties through so-called positive selection, a years-long project where seedlings are multiplied from material taken from the plants that produced the highest fruit load in test fields. The high-yielding trees planted on some 400 hectares (988 acres) in the first phase of the project are producing around 3,000 kilos per hectare (kg/h) (6,613 pounds), or 10 times the average yield of traditional cocoa areas in Brazil. Schmidt said his target is to get past 4,000 kg/h (8,818 pounds). That would be eight times the 500 kg/h (1,102 pounds) average yield in top producer the Ivory Coast. Very high yields above 2,000 kg/ha have been reached in small test fields run by the Executive Commission for Cocoa Cultivation Planning, Brazil's cocoa research agency, using high density of plants. The researchers, however, said the results would need to be confirmed with larger scale planting and added there were questions about the economic feasibility of such practice, that would require extensive crop care and workforce. Schmidt's nursery installation, which operates as a separate company called BioBrasil, uses propagation machinery from Denmark's forestry equipment maker Ellepot with capacity to produce 10 million seedlings per year. It produces the trees for the planned giant farm and also sells seedlings to other cocoa projects in Brazil. Some people in the market, however, are not so certain this kind of expansion will indeed happen in Brazil. 'As always, price is the key determinant. At around $4,000 per ton Brazil was barely interested,' said Pam Thornton, a veteran cocoa consultant and beans trader. 'After talking to many Brazilian farmers and visiting a bunch of large commercial farms, I believe world prices have to demonstrate that they will remain near current price levels for another year or so for them to expand acreage, and probably several thousand dollars higher for it to be in a meaningful way,' she said. Schmidt says that cocoa from his operation would be profitable even at around $4,000 per ton. 'Above $6,000 it is super profitable, much better than soy or corn,' he said. Long-term supply and demand projections seem positive for prices, considering that production in West Africa is stable or 'locked into a long cycle of diminishing outcomes,' said U.S.-based veteran cocoa broker and analyst Marcelo Dorea, Chief Executive of M3I Capital Management. 'The market must, heretofore, seek alternative sources of meaningful production,' he said, adding that Brazil looks like a natural option considering cocoa know-how and land availability. Schmidt Agricola cultivates more than 35,000 hectares with soybeans, corn and cotton in Bahia. It has preliminary agreements through memorandum of understandings with chocolate producers and cocoa traders, Schmidt said. Cargill, one of the world's largest commodities traders and food processors, is already a partner in the initial phase encompassing the 400 hectares, and is in talks to expand the partnership. Schmidt said that nearly all of the big cocoa traders or chocolate companies are talking to him and other farmers in Brazil regarding expansion and supply deals. The partnerships would include investment to develop the projects, and in return the investing companies would guarantee cocoa supplies, he said.
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Brazil's would-be cocoa king aims to revolutionize industry with giant farm
By Marcelo Teixeira RIACHAO DAS NEVES, Brazil (Reuters) - In the Brazilian state of Bahia, farmer Moises Schmidt is developing the world's largest cocoa farm. His plan is to revolutionize the way the main ingredient in chocolate is produced, growing high-yield cocoa trees, fully irrigated and fertilized, in an area bigger than the island of Manhattan that is not currently known for producing the beans. Schmidt's $300 million plan is the largest and the most innovative in that region, but not the only one. There are similar super-sized projects under development, some of them nearly as big, as well-capitalized farming groups look to apply industrial-scale agriculture expertise to cocoa production to profit from sky-high prices for the beans. If those plans work, the industry's center of gravity could shift back to Brazil, where the cocoa tree is native, from West Africa. "I believe Brazil will become the world's cocoa breadbasket," Schmidt told Reuters while walking amid row after row of young cocoa trees stretching to the distance in this flat savanna land in the country's Centre-North region. He estimates that as much as 500,000 hectares (1.236 million acres) of high yield cocoa farms could be in place in Brazil in 10 years, which would produce as much as 1.6 million tons of cocoa. By comparison, Brazil currently produces only around 200,000 tons, while the world's top grower Ivory Coast harvests 10 times more than that. Ghana, the second largest global grower, produces around 700,000 tons of the beans. Currently, the global cocoa industry is in crisis. Production is failing in Ivory Coast and neighboring Ghana, which between them grow more than 60% of the world's cocoa. A potent mix of plant disease, climate change and aging plantations has led to three consecutive years of falling output. That's been bad news for chocolate lovers. Cocoa prices nearly tripled in 2024, hitting a record high of $12,931 a metric ton in December. The price has since come off to around $8,200, but remains well above the historical averages. OPPORTUNITY IN CRISIS? For Schmidt and other farmers in Brazil, the crisis is viewed as an opportunity. The Schmidt Agricola family business started preparing to cultivate cocoa in 2019 after concluding with the help of an in-house assessment of the cocoa market that there would be a future supply shortfall. "We just didn't think it would happen so soon," he said, as he walked through the greenhouses on his farm that nurse seedlings. His planned 10,000-hectare (24,105 acres) farm would dwarf the size of the small farms in West Africa that typically span a few dozen hectares. There are large farms in other producing countries such as Ecuador and Indonesia, some of them going over 1,000 hectares (2,471 acres) in size, but still much smaller than Schmidt's planned giant. The plan is to apply large-scale agriculture techniques to the fully irrigated cocoa farm as if it were a soybean or corn field. The trees in the farm in the municipality of Riachao das Neves in the west of Bahia state will be packed together, leaving only enough room between them for mechanized watering and application of fertilizer and pesticides. Schmidt is planting 1,600 trees per hectare in the new areas, compared to only 300 trees in conventional farms. The concentration should mean a much higher yield per hectare. "The only thing that is not mechanized yet is the fruit picking from the trees," the farmer said. Some see this method of farming as a game changer. "Five years from now everything we used to know about cocoa production would have changed," said Tales Rocha, a cocoa agronomist for TRF Consultoria Agricola, a company that advises farmers in Brazil. Rocha said the savanna region in Western Bahia has the ideal topography for large scale agriculture, with its extended flat expanses. Farming groups such as Schmidt Agricola already produce soybeans, corn, cotton and fruits in thousands of hectares in Western Bahia, a region with ample water supplies. MILLIONS OF SEEDLINGS At the new farms, the cocoa trees are grown in the open, with plenty of sunlight. This contrasts with traditional cocoa plantations elsewhere in Brazil and worldwide, where cocoa trees share space with other types of trees and get some shade. Schmidt is developing high-yield trees through a seedling operation he has been running since 2019. His team has produced new cocoa varieties through so-called positive selection, a years-long project where seedlings are multiplied from material taken from the plants that produced the highest fruit load in test fields. The high-yielding trees planted on some 400 hectares (988 acres) in the first phase of the project are producing around 3,000 kilos per hectare (kg/h) (6,613 pounds), or 10 times the average yield of traditional cocoa areas in Brazil. Schmidt said his target is to get past 4,000 kg/h (8,818 pounds). That would be eight times the 500 kg/h (1,102 pounds) average yield in top producer the Ivory Coast. Very high yields above 2,000 kg/ha have been reached in small test fields run by the Executive Commission for Cocoa Cultivation Planning, Brazil's cocoa research agency, using high density of plants. The researchers, however, said the results would need to be confirmed with larger scale planting and added there were questions about the economic feasibility of such practice, that would require extensive crop care and workforce. Schmidt's nursery installation, which operates as a separate company called BioBrasil, uses propagation machinery from Denmark's forestry equipment maker Ellepot with capacity to produce 10 million seedlings per year. It produces the trees for the planned giant farm and also sells seedlings to other cocoa projects in Brazil. Some people in the market, however, are not so certain this kind of expansion will indeed happen in Brazil. "As always, price is the key determinant. At around $4,000 per ton Brazil was barely interested," said Pam Thornton, a veteran cocoa consultant and beans trader. "After talking to many Brazilian farmers and visiting a bunch of large commercial farms, I believe world prices have to demonstrate that they will remain near current price levels for another year or so for them to expand acreage, and probably several thousand dollars higher for it to be in a meaningful way," she said. Schmidt says that cocoa from his operation would be profitable even at around $4,000 per ton. "Above $6,000 it is super profitable, much better than soy or corn," he said. Long-term supply and demand projections seem positive for prices, considering that production in West Africa is stable or "locked into a long cycle of diminishing outcomes," said U.S.-based veteran cocoa broker and analyst Marcelo Dorea, Chief Executive of M3I Capital Management. "The market must, heretofore, seek alternative sources of meaningful production," he said, adding that Brazil looks like a natural option considering cocoa know-how and land availability. BIG COCOA IS WATCHING Schmidt Agricola cultivates more than 35,000 hectares with soybeans, corn and cotton in Bahia. It has preliminary agreements through memorandum of understandings with chocolate producers and cocoa traders, Schmidt said. Cargill, one of the world's largest commodities traders and food processors, is already a partner in the initial phase encompassing the 400 hectares, and is in talks to expand the partnership. Schmidt said that nearly all of the big cocoa traders or chocolate companies are talking to him and other farmers in Brazil regarding expansion and supply deals. The partnerships would include investment to develop the projects, and in return the investing companies would guarantee cocoa supplies, he said. "We are working on the contracts now," he said, declining to name the firms, citing non-disclosure clauses. Barry Callebaut, the world's largest supplier of cocoa products and chocolate, is in talks to partner with farming group Fazenda Santa Colomba in an investment to form a cocoa farm of 5,000 (12,355 acres) to 7,000 hectares (17,300 acres) in the municipality of Cocos in Western Bahia, two sources familiar with the negotiation told Reuters. Santa Colomba declined to comment. Barry Callebaut confirmed it has signed a partnership with one farming group in Brazil for a 5,000 hectare cocoa farm in Bahia, but declined to name the group. The deal is part of the Future Farming Initiative launched by the company to boost high-tech cocoa farming and to diversify its geographical presence. "We are making good progress with FFI and continue to see interest from partners, clients, and investors globally," it said. Mars, the U.S. producer of Snickers bars and M&Ms, has set up a cocoa test field not far from Schmidt's farm in Riachao das Neves, Bahia. The company said its test field in the area is part of its efforts to deal with climate change and falling cocoa productivity around the world. "Bahia is attractive due to flat topography, fertile soils, reliable water availability and established agronomical infrastructure," said Luciel Fernandes, a manager at Mars Center for Cocoa Science in Brazil. POTENTIAL RISKS A leading cocoa researcher in Brazil, however, is worried. Plant pathologist Karina Peres Gramacho, who works for CEPLAC, believes there are risks to the plans for extensive cocoa fields in Western Bahia. The fact that each of those mega projects are based on thousands of clones of the same type of tree could leave the future fields vulnerable to diseases, which are very common in cocoa cultivation. Brazil was once second only to Ivory Coast in cocoa production, but a devastating fungus in the 1980's known as Witches' Broom decimated thousands of hectares of cocoa crops. Gramacho supports the idea of using more developed and regionally adequate varieties, usually hybrids that combine qualities from more than one genotype. Some industry analysts also have questions about the quality of the cocoa that would be grown in direct sunlight, because fruit that is produced in shade is typically considered to have superior taste. Cristiano Villela Dias, scientific director at Brazil's Cocoa Innovation Center (CIC), says that some initial tests with the fruits produced in Western Bahia indicated no discernible difference in taste. "The quality of the beans is very similar to the best cocoa produced in Brazil or other countries," Villela said, adding that optimal after harvest treatment, particularly with fermentation and drying, would make a bigger difference for beans' quality. Mars said it had tested the cocoa produced in the area and had not identified "a fundamental difference in taste or quality that is directly and exclusively associated with full-sun cultivation." Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Import tax on coffee pressures US roasters already facing high prices
By Marcelo Teixeira NEW YORK (Reuters) - The first U.S. tariffs on coffee imports since colonial times will increase costs and complexity to importers and roasters already dealing with near-record prices. The U.S. announced on Wednesday tariffs of 46% on imports from Vietnam, the world's second largest coffee producer, as well as a 32% duty on imports from Indonesia, the fourth largest grower. Central and South American coffee growers, such as Brazil and Colombia, got a 10% tariff. Vietnam is the third largest supplier of coffee to the U.S., the world's largest consumer of the beverage. It mainly exports robusta coffee, a type widely used to make instant coffee as well as ready-to-drink cold beverages. "Vietnam is the big one that sticks out," said Tomas Araujo, a broker at StoneX. "Going forward, it will be a challenge for the supply chain and to end users, with added costs," he said. "This is big. The tariff on Vietnam means $2,500 more per ton" for a U.S. buyer, a European trader said. ICE robusta futures, the global price benchmark, were trading at around $5,390 per ton on Thursday. It is uncertain if beans already en route to the U.S. are subject to the large tariff, he noted. Countries exporting cocoa, the main chocolate-making ingredient, were also taxed. No. 1 grower Ivory Coast got a 21% tariff. "Both the coffee industry and candy manufacturers will lobby hard to have the tariffs removed from these products," said soft commodities analyst Judith Ganes, president of J Ganes Consulting. "I personally doubt the tariffs will stick." U.S. roasters will probably have to shift from Vietnam's robustas to Brazil's, known as conilons, experts said. But Brazil does not have a lot of robustas, as it produces mostly the milder arabica variety. The U.S. will have to compete for the conilons with the local Brazilian industry, they said, while Europe and China might be better off having a larger supply from Vietnam at lower prices. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Brazil's coffee farmers turn to costly irrigation to quench global demand for the brew
By Marcelo Teixeira and Roberto Samora LUIS EDUARDO MAGALHAES/GUAXUPE, Brazil (Reuters) - Drought hit coffee farmers in Brazil hard last year, drying up trees and driving global prices to record highs. But Rodrigo Brondani is expecting a bumper harvest. Brondani's giant plantation on the savanna of Brazil's northeastern state of Bahia looks very different to the mountainside farms and estates typical in coffee cultivation across much of Latin America. As he inspects rows of plants laden with green coffee cherries, a long irrigation arm passes overhead nearby. It traces a wide circle above the trees from a central pivot, like the hand of a clock. "This is looking very good," said Brondani, the lead manager at the Joha farm, which has 900 hectares (2,224 acres) of irrigated coffee fields - more than 20 times bigger than the average coffee farm in Brazil. This kind of industrial-scale farm with access to irrigation is becoming increasingly important in meeting global coffee demand in Brazil – the world's largest grower. Most farms in the western part of Bahia - a new frontier for coffee growing in Brazil - are now irrigated. Brondani expects to produce up to 80 60-kg (132.3 pounds) bags of coffee per hectare at that specific lot of the farm, double the average yield in Brazil. At current market prices, the farm's most recent harvest, ended in October, would be worth around $17 million. Reuters spoke to more than 20 farmers, officials, agronomists, irrigation experts and coffee company executives to examine how rapid shifts in rainfall patterns due to climate change are transforming coffee farming. Coffee growers have typically depended on Brazil's abundant spring and summer rains. Drought was rare and only around 30% of coffee fields are irrigated, according to industry assessments. After last year's drought, that is changing. But irrigation can be costly, depending on the distance from a water source and the depth of the water table. In some places in the heart of Brazil's traditional coffee growing region in the state of Minas Gerais, the water table has fallen so much that supplying water to irrigated farms has become very difficult. The trees at Joha are planted in nine giant circles that bump up against each other on the vast tropical savanna. The circular layout facilitates irrigation. There is enough water here to irrigate the crop for up to 20 hours a day. The glossy plants stand in stark contrast to the desiccated trees seen on many drought-hit coffee farms last year. When the rains did come, it was too late to save the 2025 coffee crop. Many of the trees that survived in Minas Gerais were left weakened, so they will produce fewer beans this year. Brazilian coffee supplies, which account for around 35% of global consumption, are expected to fall again, according to some analysts. "People say that without irrigation it will be very hard to produce coffee profitably," said Osmar Junior, who said his production at a smaller farm in Minas Gerais that lacks irrigation, fell to 700 bags in 2024 from 2,000 bags in 2020. 2025 is expected to mark the fourth time in the past six years that global coffee consumption exceeds supply. In the past three years alone, the world has consumed 12.5 million bags, or 750,000 metric tonnes, more coffee than it has grown, according to the International Coffee Organization. The deficit is equivalent to about 7% of global annual supply. As a result, farmers and coffee roasters have had to run down what coffee they had in storage to meet demand. The shortfall has driven benchmark coffee prices up nearly 25% already in 2025, after an eye-popping rally of 70% in 2024. The futures price of high quality arabica coffee hit a record of $4.40 per pound on February 13. All that means a more expensive morning brew. Nestle's Nespresso, U.S. chain Starbucks and JDE Peet, among many others, have all raised prices for clients. Given the rally so far this year, consumers will soon have to pay even more, analysts said. IRRIGATION, BUT NO WATER The company that owns the Joha farm where Brondani works says that climate change means the future of coffee cultivation will be at heavily irrigated farms like this one. "In our view, coffee farming has changed for good," said Sergio Vieira, a director at holding company AFB&IOB, one of the biggest coffee growers in the world that holds about 20,000 hectares of coffee fields in Brazil. AFB&IOB bought the Joha farm in 2009, in a time when access to water for irrigation was less pressing than it is now for Brazil's coffee industry. Things have changed a lot since. "We are always looking for farms to buy, but the number one aspect we take into consideration nowadays is water availability," said Vieira. Western Bahia sits on one of the world's largest aquifers, the Urucuia. The aquifer is just 20 meters or so below the surface in some areas. But, in Minas Gerais, the water tables have fallen so far that farmers in some places need to drill wells 300 meters (984.25 ft)deep to hit water. Drilling that deep is costly and risky, and can result in weak water flow, said irrigation specialist Jose do Espirito Santo. Several municipalities in Minas Gerais limited irrigation in 2024 because of the drought. "I have an irrigation system, but there was no water," said Mario Alvarenga, who grows coffee in a 300-hectare farm in Perdoes, in the savanna region in Minas Gerais. Coffee research body Fundacao Procafe tracks soil moisture at coffee regions in Minas Gerais. Their data showed soils in top growing region of south Minas had a water deficit for optimum coffee plant growth of 300 millimeters (11.81 inches) at the end of the dry season in October, 2024. That compares to a deficit of 110 millimeters (4.33 inches) in 2023 at the same time and a long-term average of a surplus of 20 mm. "The recent (water) deficits we have seen are scary," said Procafe researcher Rodrigo Paiva, referring to 2023 and 2024 data. HIGH INVESTMENT Beyond water availability, a key factor in coffee farming is capital. Farmers around the world are only now reaping the benefits of high coffee prices, after a decade of low values sent many out of business, or left them with minimal available cash. A central pivot irrigation system costs around 1.5 million reais ($263,000) each. A different system called dripping, where small water pipes are inserted in the soil with little holes close to the plants, could cost around 40,000 reais ($6,991) per hectare. "It is a very high investment for a farmer," said Hugo Guimaraes de Oliveira, a coffee agronomist and farmer in the Guaxupe region in Minas Gerais, where the world's largest coffee co-op, Cooxupe, operates. Cooxupe's president Carlos Augusto Rodrigues de Melo said irrigation has made a difference in recent dry years. However, only around 20% of the area around the co-op has these systems, but he expects that number to double in a period of three to five years. The co-op has made a partnership with Israeli irrigation company Netafim, a global leader in irrigation systems, to provide an option for its associated farmers to install dripping technology and pay with coffee bags over time. Oliveira said farmers could also improve crop care, with regenerative agriculture techniques to improve soil's capacity to retain moisture, along with some field renovation - replacing old trees with new varieties. With that, along with dripping water system, he believes yields could jump to up to 70 bags per hectare, compared to as low as 20 bags per hectare in an old farm without irrigation. QUICK GROWTH The number of central pivot irrigation systems like the one at Brondani's farm rose 14% in Brazil from 2022 to 2024 according to the country's agricultural research company Embrapa. Coffee farmers are not the only ones that have moved to western Bahia, a new agricultural frontier in Brazil where farmers are increasingly growing grains, cotton, coffee, cocoa and fruits. Bahia's farmers association AIBA said that, considering available water resources, there is potential for total irrigated area in the region to grow to 1 million hectares in coming years from the current 300,000 hectares. Recent research, however, raised concerns about what it calls the "super exploration" of water resources in Bahia. A study published last year by non-profit Imaterra with the Bahia Federal University (UFBA) says the local government has relaxed regulation in recent years related to concessions for water use. It also says existing tools to evaluate water resources are inefficient. The amount of water allowed to be used by the booming agricultural sector in Bahia - around 17 billion liters per day - would be enough to supply nine times the population of Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city of 11.5 million people, the researchers said. The Brazilian Geological Service (SGB) has found that the Urucuia lost 31 cubic km of water from 2002 to 2021 due mostly to the use of water for agriculture. That is around 2.3% of the permanent reserves of the aquifer, estimated at 1,327 cubic km. Scientists working for the SGB believe the government should increase monitoring tools like wells in the site. ($1 = 5.7210 reais)
