November 30, 2006

Five Brazilian states with Asian soybean rust

Five Brazilian states have reported cases of Asian soybean rust so far this year, according to Embrapa Soja, Brazil's main crop science institute.

Minas Gerais and Mato Grosso were the first two states to report the fungal disease earlier this month. But over the last 13 days, some 16 discoveries have been made in Goias, Parana and Sao Paulo.

"It's too early to tell whether those plants will be lost to Asian soybean rust this year," Rafael Soares, an agronomist and soybean rust expert at Embrapa said in a phone interview on Wednesday.

Most of the plants were in their pre-flowering stage of development, meaning it is likely those farmers where the fungus was discovered will have to spend the next several months applying herbicide to fight the spreading of the leave-destroying fungus.

Last year, Asian soybean rust cost farmers US$2 billion. Some 67 percent of that total came from extra spending on herbicides, Soares said. The herbicide often does not eliminate the fungus and so many applications are required simply to stop the disease from spreading.

Soares said that despite the latest discoveries over the last 13 days, there has been less instances of Asian soybean rust in the 2006/07 crop compared with last season's crop. The 2005/06 crop had a total of 1,409 discoveries of Asian soybean rust.

"It's likely that new discoveries will keep getting made from here on in because the disease starts to spread during the flowering period," said Embrapa researcher Claudia Godoy.

Brazil is the world's no. 2 soy producer behind the US. Early estimates put the crop close to 56 million tonnes.