Environmental agenda will be the focus of the official opening of the rice harvest

Claudio Medaglia, from Capão do Leão

With an abundant supply of precipitation from autumn to spring and a repeated water crisis throughout the summer agricultural cycle, the discussion around the need for changes in environmental legislation will be a sure and indispensable topic this Tuesday afternoon (15), during the 33rd Official Opening of the Rice and Grain Harvest in Lowlands, at Embrapa in Capão do Leão. The introduction of the agenda at the event, which will feature the participation of Governor Eduardo Leite, State Secretaries, parliamentarians and sector leaders, was ensured by the president of the Federation of Rice Growers Associations of Rio Grande do Sul (Federarroz), Alexandre Velho in the first of the three days of programming.

During a hybrid meeting of the National Cereal Sectorial Chamber, the leader reinforced the speech of specialists. “There is no shortage of water. Reservation is missing! We have to move forward in solving this problem, which has been compromising the production, productivity, quality and profitability of the rice farming activity”, he said.

According to Velho, there are around 4,700 irrigation pivots spread across 200,000 hectares of rice in the state. But there are properties that, even having invested in the purchase of four pieces of equipment, cannot use more than one, because they don’t have water to draw.

The construction of dams and other water storage structures in permanent preservation areas, protected by environmental legislation, will even have to be tackled. The issue is already at the center of discussions by the State and Federal Executive and Legislative powers, championed by parliamentarians from different parties, convinced of the urgency of solving the problem so as not to make agricultural production unfeasible in the face of successive droughts.

The relationship between culture and the market is also of concern to the sector. According to Velho, the activity’s production cost is only below that of cotton production. The activity underwent a change of level. Although the price paid to the producer has increased by 28% since February 2022, this difference no longer covers production costs. The average investment for a hectare of rice is around R$ 13 thousand. But the revenue, with productivity of 8.3 thousand kilos, is R$ 11.8 thousand.

“For a crop to be minimally viable, we need to harvest 10,000 kilos per hectare. But we are experiencing a moment of insecurity regarding the resumption of labor lawsuits, charges for electricity and also in relation to heritage and environmental areas”.

The rice grower projects that, due to the climatic difficulties, the producer will need to evaluate his productive capacity in relation to the water availability of the property. Temperature maps will have to be introduced as a tool, since the influence of heat on the flowering period, for example, influences productivity.

According to the Rio Grandense Rice Institute (Irga), 839, 9 thousand hectares were sown in the last crop in the state, a reduction of 12% over the previous crop. On the other hand, soy advanced 19%, reaching 505.9 thousand hectares planted in lowlands. Corn occupied 12,700 hectares traditionally used for rice, based on research into its potential in irrigated areas and attractive prices for grains and silage, in addition to the benefits of crop rotation, as with soybeans. .

The ratio also shows that 24.8 thousand hectares of the 957.1 thousand hectares planted with rice in the past harvest were not sown. According to Irga’s technical director, Flávia Tomita, some factors can be considered about this difference.

“The area is not always replaced directly with soy and corn. It may remain fallow, it may be being prepared to receive the next harvest, and it may also be used for livestock”, he explained.

Alexandre Velho recalls that the sector reduced the planted area to adapt to demand. With no control over prices, imposed by retailers, the path was to encourage a change in the profile of rice growers to “multi-harvest producers”, opening the range to soybeans and corn, which offer double and triple profitability, respectively. For him, the speed of recovery of rice production in Rio Grande do Sul will not depend only on stimuli such as subsidized interest and debt renegotiations, but also on the progress of other crops that today make up the producer’s cash flow, such as soybeans, corn , wheat, beef cattle and milk, for example.

“In this context, the Ministry of Agriculture, in addition to its domestic attributions, has a fundamental role in maintaining the international trade flow, defending the national product and protecting producers from surprises. The sharing of this structure tends to make the producer more vulnerable, especially the rice farmer, who has other activities as a complement. The message we leave is that the Ministry of Agriculture should be the size that Brazilian agriculture is for the world in terms of food security”, concluded the rice leader, in a critique of the recent changes promoted by the new management of the Planalto Palace, giving more strength to the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Family Agriculture.

The president of the National Rice Sectorial Chamber, Daire Coutinho, praised the analysis and said that the sector shows maturity to develop a positive debate for the productive chain.

“The tendency is that we have a production lower than the national consumption in 2023. This brings responsibility to the chain, but I see that we are mature to start a positive discussion. I see the possibility of building a great path with the discussions in this event”, he concluded.