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The production of cereals, legumes, and oilseed crops - that is, peanuts, rice, beans, corn, soybeans, and wheat, among others - could attain 134.522 million tons this year in Brazil. This would be 12.96% more than last year's harvest of 119.085 million tons.
Increases are forecast for all major productive regions in comparison with 2004, most prominently the South (41.14%) and the Center-West (34.47%).
The figures, which were announced yesterday, February 23, represent the January estimate for the 2005 agricultural harvest, as projected by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) through its Systematic Survey of Agricultural Production (LSPA).
Just last month, the IBGE estimated that the 2005 harvest could be 13.29% greater than in 2004. At the time the forecast was for a total of 134.9 million tons. That estimate was part of the third prognosis on production and cultivated area, released January 27 by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics.
According to the IBGE, soybeans will play a substantial role in this year's crop increase, unlike in 2004, when the product contributed to a 3.7% decline in relation to 2003.
The IBGE's coordinator of Agriculture and Livestock, Carlos Alberto Lauria, said that soybeans account for 41% of the country's grain production.
"The significant increase in soybeans is being attributed to the lack of alternatives for farmers to shift to other products," he affirmed.
Herbaceous cotton, which was the standout in 2004, growing 62%, is expected to pull back this year in production and cultivated area, principally in the state of Mato Grosso.
This area is expected to produce 1.406 million tons, 18.16% less than in 2004. In terms of cultivated area, there has been expansion in the case of peanuts, unpolished rice, and soybeans.
Translation: David Silberstein
Agência Brasil
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