SLC Agrícola S A : Soy producers in Bahia should reduce the percentage of fertilizers used due to high price

Soy producers in Bahia should reduce the percentage of fertilizers used due to high price

Associação dos Produtores de Soja e Milho do Estado da Bahia [Association of Soy and Corn Producers of the State of Bahia] (Aprosoja-BA) estimates a reduction of 20% to 25% in the use of fertilizers in soy crops in the State. Leandro Köhn, President of Aprosoja-BA, explained that the cut is made in crops that have already received good volumes of fertilizers in recent years and that now have the so-called soil savings. "There will be a reduction in fertilizers, in crops with this soil profile, but not in productivity. Soil savings in the areas are sufficient for up to two years, without losing productivity", he explained.

Köhn said he will reduce fertilization of his own crops by 30%, of 8.1 thousand hectares of soy and corn. "We purposely made savings in the irrigated area with corn and good fertilization in order to reduce it in the second soy harvest. We cannot reduce the amount of seed, machinery or pesticides. The only thing the producer can reduce is fertilizer", he said.

The strategy is an effect of the high price of fertilizers, which although not in shortage in the market, has become unviable for many producers. "The amount that producers spent last harvest to buy limestone, potassium chloride and phosphorus for fertilization, they won´t have to spend this year, not even on potassium chloride. And soy didn't follow this increase", he said.

Aprosoja-BA estimates that about 20% of the inputs were purchased by producers in western Bahia, acquired especially in January this year. "Purchases are late because producers who migrated cotton and corn areas to soy areas have not yet decided how much nitrogen they are going to buy", he justified.

The state's grain and cotton production is concentrated in Western Bahia. The region consists of the municipalities of Luís Eduardo Magalhães, Barreiras, São Desidério, Formosa do Rio Preto, Correntina, Santa Maria da Vitória, Cocos, Jaborandi, Baianópolis and Riachão das Neves.

It is possible for the cost of fertilizer to influence the crop producers choose to plant, who may still opt for crops that require less fertilizer, such as soy, instead of cotton and corn. Soy, which allows a 50% to 60% reduction in fertilizers, rather than taking fertilizer away from corn and cotton.