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Cotton Scenery in Brazil Cotton Scenery in Brazil

Introduction


Cotton has been an important cash crop to Brazil since a long time. Its
exploration, with ups and downs for over a century, has influenced positively
on the economic and social development of the country.

During the last decade, under the influence of intensive research and
development efforts, the technological pattern of cotton production has
undergone radical changes in Brazil, particularly in the savannas region,
known as Cerrados, to where the majority of the crop areas from the South
and Northeast of the country moved. Currently, nearly 80% of the cultivated
area and 85% of the cotton production in Brazil, is in the Cerrados. There, a
modern and competitive cotton industry flourished, and is considered today,
one of the world leaders in terms of yield and fiber quality.

Although in the cerrado areas, cotton yield (around 1.210kg/ha of lint) and
fiber quality are very high, the cost of production has increased to levels
(around US$ 1.500,00/hectare) which are threatening the economics of the
crop. The natural fertility of the cerrado soils is very poor, and cotton
production generally requires high inputs use in the form of soil correctors,
fertilizers, insecticides and herbicides. Most of the fields are sprayed at least
15 times during normal years, mainly against aphids, boll weevil, spodoptera
frugiperda, and heliothis complex. At present, insecticides and fertilizers
together represent up to 45% of production costs. Today, one of the main
agronomic issues affecting Brazilian cotton growers, is the increasing
resistance of insects to conventional insecticides. Large volume of chemicals
is being used on the cotton crops, and it has begun to show signs of
ineffectiveness against some pests.

Currently, the most commonly occurring and damage causing diseases of
cotton in the Cerrado areas are: Witches´Broom caused by Colletotrichum
gossipii (South) var. cephalosporioides; Leaf-Rib Mosaic, Ribeirão Bonito
form, which is a viral disease transmitted by Aphis gossypii also known as
Blue Disease, and Ramularia spot caused by the Ramularia areola fungus.

______________________________
Robson de Macedo Vieira Presidente of EMPARN Agricultural Research Enterprise of Rio Grande do
Norte State. Natal, RN, Brazil.

Other diseases of less significant importance are seedling rot, boll rot and leaf
spot. Witches´Broom has increased in recent years to the point where in
certain areas it is almost uneconomical to grow cotton due to the yield loss
associated with plant mortality.

According to ICAC, the production of cotton in the Brazilian Cerrados has,
during the last ten years, maintained one of the highest yield gains in the world
(67Kg/Ha/year of cotton lint), and is ranked today, among the five countries
with the highest cotton yield in the world.

The necessity of being competitive and the high level of quality demanded by
the domestic and international market, required Brazil to modernize its
production, harvesting, ginning and classing equipments. Today, in nearly
80% of the cotton area, farming practices and harvesting are fully mechanized
while new ginning equipments has completely replaced old ones. Over 80% of
the cotton fibers harvested are evaluated by the use of the high capacity
automatic HVI instruments.

Considerable progress has been achieved by the Brazilian research in the past
two decades in breeding cotton for high yield and fiber quality (table 1).

Nevertheless all the benefits that cotton industry has accomplished, it has in
some case, generated high costs to natural resources, energy, and to
environmental quality. Despite of that, cotton growing in Brazil continues to
be a profitable alternative to many other crops even in irrigated areas.


Brazilian Cotton Scene
Evidences of the potential of Brazil as an important cotton producer is
unquestionable and has greatly increased during the last few years. Besides the
significant gains in yield and fiber quality taken so far, the country has built a
fairly large cultivated area and a modern and competitive textile industry. In
1980, the cultivated area totaled nearly 3.5 million hectares declining in 1995
to less than 700 thousands hectares. At present, it is estimated as being 1.152
thousands hectares. Practically 80% of this area is in the Cerrados and only
20% in others regions. Of the top five states that planted more than 500.000 hectares in the
2004/2005 season, Mato Grosso has by far the largest area (426.800 ha)
followed by Bahia (233.000 ha), Goias (144.000 ha), São Paulo (78.200 ha),
and Mato Grosso do Sul (58.800ha), (table 2).

In a dry country such as Brazil, dependent on rains for the moisture necessary
to make a crop, increasing yields is, of course, not an easy task. However, the
Brazilian cotton grower significantly enhanced his production efficiency by
increasing yields. While the cultivated area practicaly remained the same
during the last 10 years (fig.1), seedcotton yield jumped from 1.220 to 3.625
Kg/Ha (fig.2) which is more than two times what it was in the early 1990s.
Over this 10 years period, lint production increased around 67 Kg/Ha/year,
and the average cotton grower produced in 2004/05 season, more 673kg/ha of
lint than he used to produce 10 years ago. This has occurred primarily because
of the moving-ahead attitudes and sense of the future benefits of the Cerrado
growers and the role played by research and development institutions in
overcoming limitations and making available to the growers the varieties that
not only have longer and stronger fibers but also high yields.

Today, cotton growers are employing better production practices to control
water, fertilizer, insects and plant diseases, which has resulted in less stressed
cotton plant and consequently more yield. More producers are putting their
harvested seedcotton into modules which has allowed them, to harvest their
crop in a timely way when it is at its peak quality. Further, careful attention
has been paid to ginning, so that the quality is maintained through the ginning
process. This steady increase in the efficiency of Brazilian cotton production,
has not been only good for cotton growers, but it has been also good for textile
spinners because it has assured them a reliable source of raw cotton at
reasonable prices.

In terms of production, in the 2004/2005 season, the top 7 cotton states are
listed in table 2 along with corresponding production data. Collectively they
will produce nearly 90% of the Brazilian cotton. The State of Mato Grosso
with the expectation of producing 1.400 kg/ha of lint and a total production of
602.000 tons is the top cotton producing state (table 2).

Brazil has a very big and competitive textile industry which, by necessity, has
to ensure a supply to satisfy its own consumption requirements.
According to CONAB (Brazilian Supplying Company) the total consumption
of cotton in Brazil in 2004 was approximately 850.000 tons, and the internal
production has been the main source of demand for most of the cotton
consumed in the country.

Compared with a expected production of 1.400.000 tons of lint, consumption
in 2005 is expected to be 900.000 tons, a increase of 50.000 tons in relation to
2004.

In both social and economic terms, the cotton industry is the leading
component and an undeniable vital part of the Brazilian textile sector. In 2004,
it directly employed equivalent of 1.5 million people, exported around US$
1.5 billion and had a total revenue of US$ 22 billion.


Development of New Varieties
As it can be seen from Table 1, all commercially cultivated cotton varieties in
Brazil are based on the Gossypium hirsutum L. species, although they differ
considerably in a number of characteristics. The process of variety
development or selection, is a fairly integrated approach which caters to the
needs of the growers and also the spinners. At present, the priority objective
aims at producing individuals with high yields and superior-quality fibers plus
resistance to both diseases and pests i