January 14, 2004

Brazil Set To Combat Asian Rust Soy Fungus

Brazil's government will set up a task force to coordinate efforts to limit the impact of the potentially devastating Asian rust fungus on the soybean crop this season, Agriculture Minister Roberto Rodrigues said Tuesday.

A network of soy specialists, government officials and soy industry representatives will coordinate actions to help farmers identify the fungus and inform those in areas at risk of any outbreak, said Joao Flavio Veloso Silva, chief soy researcher at Embrapa, the Agriculture Ministry's research bureau.

Embrapa recommends daily monitoring of the crop as it enters the flowering period, when the plant is most susceptible. It also recommends fungicide spraying on news of a nearby outbreak of the fungus, which kills leaves and therefore the plant's capacity to carry soybean pods.

The soy sector is concerned that cases are occurring much earlier than last year, when Embrapa estimated that farmers lost around 3 million metric tons of soy to rust.

Rust has already been identified in 10 Brazilian states and has hit crops in neighboring Paraguay hard.

Brazil is set to produce a crop of 60 million tons in 2003-04, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and overtake the U.S. as the world's No. 1 soybean exporter in 2004.