Brazil Soybeans May Be Hurt by Asian Crop Disease, Agency Says

Brazil’s soybean output may be hurt next year after a fungal disease known as Asian Rust infected plants at an earlier stage than usual in the season, a government researcher said.

Eleven cases have been reported at commercial farms in five Brazilian states, compared with zero such incidents in the same period last year, said Claudia Godoy, a researcher at the government’s agricultural research agency known as Embrapa.

“Above-average rains allowed the early and rapid spread of the disease,” Godoy said Nov. 25 in a telephone interview from Londrina, Brazil.

Efforts to contain the disease have improved since 2004, when Brazilian farmers lost 4.6 million metric tons because of Asian Rust, equal to about 8.5 percent of the expected crop that year, she said. Last year, the fungus damaged about 420,000 metric tons.

Soybean output in Brazil, the second largest producer after the U.S., may rise to as much as 63.6 million tons next year, the Agriculture Ministry forecast on Nov. 5. Planting is under way now, with the harvest set to start Dec. 25.

Asian Rust has been spotted during the flowering stage in some varieties of soybeans that take less time to develop, Godoy said.

“Farmers may have to spray more than previously expected, boosting costs,” she said. Brazilian farmers spent about $2 billion in fungicides to fight the disease last year, according to Embrapa’s Web site.