Climate change may change agricultural geography of Brazil

Changes , which should generate a loss of R $* 7 billion by 2020 , include migration from rural areas and increased incidence of pests
by Luciana Franco

( Climate change may change the picture of Brazilian agriculture and generate losses of R $ 7 billion )

" It is possible that Brazil has a new geography of agricultural production in the coming years ." The phrase is Eduardo Assad , Embrapa researcher , who participates in the First National Conference on Climate Change ( Conclima ) what happens this week in São Paulo .

The new mapping may arise in response to climate changes that are happening in the country , where hot regions will , for example , discourage the production of coffee. " The high temperature causes the flower is aborted and there is a higher frequency of days with high temperatures mainly in São Paulo and Minas Gerais, which should reduce the expansion of coffee in these areas," he says . According to the researcher the beans has also suffered a lot of flower abortion .

" In Brazil in general over the past decade has increased the intensity of rainfall , maximum temperatures occurred with greater frequency and minimum temperatures also " describes . Furthermore, veranicos being larger and the plants that are in the field has little ability to tolerate moisture stress . "The result is that increasing temperature should drop the productivity." The solution exists and is simple : abandon the monoculture .

Climate change has not only affected the crops , but also the incidence of pests : the coffee leaf miner appears with strong intensity with increasing temperatures and black sigatoka banana too. " When we begin to recover the legal reserve and we maintain biodiversity we will have what we call the ecosystem function of biodiversity , and one of them is to control pests "

By calculations Assad agricultural losses due to climatic effects must sum R $ 7 billion by 2020 . " We have to avoid that with good management , soil conservation and water use systems that retain water in the soil ," he says . The proposed Assad is to be surveyed plant biodiversity that once existed and resisted higher temperatures. " At the moment we do genetic mapping of these plants - especially in closed - we can take it and put tolerant gene in soybeans or corn ," he says .

Another effect is the migration from rural to urban . " The moment you start having droughts and area lost productivity there is nothing to do," he says .

According to him , the solution is the cultivation of varieties that are adapted to the site , ie , instead of producing rice, beans and corn in semiarid the farmer produce umbu , hog plum , hog plum , hog plum , mango, anjico because they are adapted crops that situation , " but nobody funds it and structuring projects to keep the farmers in these regions comtemplam seedlings , finance and marketing . If we can we fix it man on earth, " he says.

Source : Globo Rural magazine

* US$ 1,00 = R$ 2,35