Sealba, the new territory in the Northeast dedicated to producing food

Don’t be surprised if you’ve never heard of Sealba’s territory. It is an acronym created by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), based on the acronyms of Sergipe, Alagoas and Bahia, which corresponds to a geographical delimitation involving a set of 171 contiguous municipalities that have soil and climate conditions suitable for agricultural production, mainly grains. It’s not wrong to call Sealba Brazil’s newest agricultural frontier.

The Sealba concept was formally proposed in 2019 by the Territorial Intelligence Center of Embrapa Tabuleiros Costeiros, in Sergipe. Sealba is located in a strip of plateaus (coastal tablelands) close to the Brazilian coast and which reaches seven of the nine northeastern states, from Bahia to Ceará, leaving out only Maranhão and Piauí.

The main criterion for delimiting the region was the historical occurrence of rainfall in volumes equal to or greater than 450 mm, from April to September, which makes grain cultivation possible. Currently, corn and beans stand out, but soybean areas have been increasing, mainly in Alagoas, where the legume is included in crop rotation, in the renewal of sugarcane fields. Some producers are also testing varieties of the so-called “tropical wheat”, others are moving forward with the introduction of the integrated crop-livestock-forest system (ILPF) and there is also the cultivation of fruits, vegetables and tubers.

Planting follows the Northern Hemisphere calendar

In the grain market, the fact that the planting season corresponds to that of the Northern Hemisphere creates some competitive advantages, such as the possibility of renting idle machinery from neighboring regions and the formation of a seed production hub for the rest of the country.

“Here we produce from April to October, in a complementary cultivation cycle to the rest of the country. If you produce standard soybeans for seeds, this has a much greater added value than selling soybeans as grain. Fresh seed makes a difference, it has strong germination vigor when used immediately after harvesting”, emphasizes Marcelo Fernandes, researcher at Embrapa Tabuleiros Costeiros.

The creation of the “Sealba map” followed the research and development model that delimited in 2015 another region with a high agricultural vocation, in the cerrado of the Northeast, still unknown to many Brazilians, Matopiba – joining the initials of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia. Bahia falls into the two geographical boundaries with distinct areas: the west of the state “belongs” to Matopiba while the northeast is on the Sealba map.

The agricultural suitability maps follow their own logic, which does not necessarily coincide with the political-administrative regions, which divide the country into municipalities and states. Among the researchers’ tasks is the systematization and crossing of data from various ministries and public bodies, such as IBGE and Conab, to build concepts similar to those of Matopiba and Sealba.

Areas share problems and potential

Seeing areas with common characteristics of climate, soils, river basins and reliefs is highlighted by technicians as fundamental to structuring assertive public policies, supported by research, development and innovation programs. To delimit Matopiba and Sealba, in addition to natural characteristics, land issues, the agricultural profile, infrastructure and local socioeconomic conditions were also considered.

“We put this puzzle together to have the best possible diagnosis of the territory, identifying areas that are equiproblematic, that is, that share problems together, but that are also equipotential, where the same public policies, the same technology transfer actions and research can support sustainable development”, emphasizes Gustavo Spadotti, general manager of Embrapa Territorial, based in Campinas.

A significant difference between Matopiba and Sealba is the size of arable land.

In Matopiba, which accounts for 11% of Brazilian grain production, 9.1 million hectares are already cultivated – reaching up to 13.6 million in the next ten years, according to the study Projeções do Agronegócio 2022/23 a 2032/33, of the Ministry of Agriculture.

In Sealba, the total delimited area is much smaller, 5 million hectares, 2 million of which are suitable for grain cultivation – which represents an area equivalent to the size of Israel.

Sealba concentrates small and medium-sized properties

Despite being neighbors, the two geographic regions follow very different models of agricultural expansion. In Matopiba, occupation was intensified in the early 2000s by producers from the South, Southeast and Center-West, led by gauchos.

Due to logistical difficulties, with bad roads and long distances from ports, large-scale agriculture predominates there, and farms can easily be more than 10 thousand hectares. Population density is also low. There are around six million inhabitants for a total area of ​​73 million hectares.

In Sealba, the land design is different. There is a significant population density, and 5 million hectares currently live on 5 million people, with low levels of social and economic development.

“We are a new frontier, but we don’t believe in gauchada coming here, because they are small areas. It is difficult to achieve concentration of a large area here, which is what makes it possible for investors to come from other regions of the country for grains”, observes Dênio Augusto Leite, superintendent of the Sergipe Agriculture Federation (Faese), which has been organizing for two years the Sealba Show, which quickly became one of the three largest fairs in the Northeast in terms of turnover.

The attractions for foreign entrepreneurs would be, above all, in fruit growing, which does not require large areas and finds highly favorable climatic conditions in Sealba. In Alagoas, where sugar cane has a tradition of hundreds of years, mill owners are now discovering that soybeans can be a welcome companion.

Plant owners see soy as an ally, no longer an enemy

“Until a while ago, the mills didn’t want soybeans to enter. The only thing they were afraid of was soybeans. Now they are seeing that rotating with soybeans greatly improves sugarcane”, reports Everaldo Tenório, one of the pioneers in the cultivation of soybeans. legume in Sealba.

For Tenório, the fear of some regarding a supposed soybean monoculture makes no sense. One of the legume’s virtues is that it works well in combination with other crops. “The rotation of sugarcane with soybeans works very well. I don’t believe it will grow much, but it won’t end either,” he predicts.

Tenório also believes that the Northeast will be the country’s new agricultural frontier. “With this government hitting the Cerrado and the Amazon a lot, the tendency is for the Northeast to become calmer. These are areas already occupied by cattle that will give way to agriculture,” he predicts.

Agricultural zoning already includes new cultivation possibilities, but, according to Leite, from Faese, there is still a lack of more involvement from official bodies. “It was important to delimit Sealba. However, we have not yet achieved our objectives of having public policies for the region. We need to advance in the availability of rural credit resources”, he highlights.

The fact is that the confirmation of the agricultural potential of the “sealbenses” municipalities by Embrapa research causes excitement in lands that many, for a long time, believed were destined for underutilization. This already causes concern about what would be a “reversed agrarian reform”.

Agrarian reform in reverse

“Instead of taking a large property and dividing it into small ones, here you take small ones and transform them into larger ones. When we analyze rural credit data, we are noticing a concentration of land in the hands of a few people. Maybe the small person is no longer economically viable, he rents or sells the property. There are leases for grains, sugarcane and livestock”, observes Leite, from Faese.

Embrapa Tabuleiros has already developed 15 soybean varieties adapted to the Sealba climate and with productivity equivalent to that of the South region. A challenge is to identify cultivars resistant to dry spells (short periods of intense heat and no rain), which can compromise plant development .

Direct planting on straw has been an ally, as it helps retain moisture and also encourages the roots to penetrate a harder layer close to the surface. When geographically delimited, the Embrapa study indicated the existence of 875 thousand hectares in degraded pasture areas suitable for conversion to agricultural activities.

While in recent years grains from large farms in Matopiba enabled the Northeast to achieve self-sufficiency in food production, Sealba is characterized by small properties with the logistical advantages of being close to ports, fertilizer industries and urban centers. It is expected that, supported by public research and extension policies, this will favor the development of a rural northeastern middle class, in a region that still has a low HDI.

Sealba Show is a thermometer for agricultural expansion

“We have this logistical facility here. If you take the Brazilian Cerrado in the 70s, no one could ever say that it would transform into the agricultural powerhouse it is today. This was technology, adaptation of cultivars, soil management, conservation techniques that made the Cerrado the agricultural powerhouse of Brazil, where Matopiba is located today”, says Marcus Cruz, general manager of Embrapa Tabuleiros Costeiros.

“At Sealba we also have bottlenecks, and Embrapa has a fundamental role, as well as other research partners, in ensuring that these technologies reach the producer and provide development”, he adds.

The success of the Sealba Show, which has only existed for two years, in the municipality of Itabaiana, Sergipe, is evidence that the region is being transformed. The second edition of the fair, in February this year, attracted 40 thousand visitors. Companies selling agricultural implements, inputs and machines never stop arriving in the region. The hotel sector is growing.

For Cruz, it’s about good contagion. “The very delimitation of the region, and the name Sealba itself, which is already in the public domain, has contributed strongly to growth. We have local producers, who have migrated to new crops, and those from other regions who arrive with a vision of the future. They see the potential for growth. Certainly, by overcoming some technological bottlenecks, Sealba has everything it needs to consolidate itself”, he concludes.