March 8, 2022

09:03

Marcela Leiros – from Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS – The cocoa production and planting area in the Amazon should increase by 38.3% and 35.2%, in Pará, until 2031, respectively, according to the report “Brazil Agribusiness Projections 2020/2021 to 2030/2031”, released by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (Mapa). The projections indicate a tendency for weakening of cultivation in the Atlantic Forest, where the main producer is Bahia, and strengthening of the activity in the States of the North and Northeast, which are part of the Amazon, if done on a “more modern basis”.

The report, created in partnership between the Map, the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), the National Supply Company (Conab) and academic institutions, indicates that cocoa, the main raw material for the production of chocolate, has shown, in recent years, production and harvested area stability. “But it is a product that has endured several difficulties over time – diseases, lack of investment in research, among others,” points out the document.

In the Amazon, Pará is the main producer of the fruit, but the State of Mato Grosso also stands out. In Pará, the projection is that the state will produce 199,000 tons of the fruit in 2031, and cultivate 202,000 hectares by the same year. Mato Grosso may produce 201 thousand tons and cultivate 200 thousand hectares.

Agriculture in the North

The report’s regional projections also indicated that states such as Rondônia, Pará and Tocantins have become “important in agricultural production.” “The regional projections aim to indicate possible trends for selected products in the main producing regions and expanding regions and also show the forecasts in a somewhat more disaggregated form,” indicates the researchers’ conclusion.

While sugarcane and soybean cultivation should cover more areas by 2031 – an expansion of planted area of 11.3 million hectares, of which 10.3 million hectares will be soybean and 1.0 million hectares sugarcane – it is estimated that the expansion of other crops should occur in lands with great productive potential, such as the cerrado areas located in Matopiba, which comprises lands situated in Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia.

The projection also indicates that Mato Grosso, which is partially integrated to the Amazon region, should lead the expansion of corn production in the next decade. The production should increase from 34.1 million tons in the 2020/2021 harvest, to 47.3 million in 2030/2031. “Other states, such as Mato Grosso do Sul, Tocantins, Minas Gerais, Paraná and Maranhão, although projecting strong growth for this product, the quantities produced are below that observed in Mato Grosso”, the survey also points out.

See the report in full: