Brazil’s 2005 agricultural harvest may reach 116,341 tons. This is the fourth estimate for the national production of cereals, leguminous, and oleaginous plants, which include cotton seed, peanuts, rice, beans, castor beans, corn, soy, oat, rye, barley, sunflower, sorghum, wheat, and triticale, a cereal resulting from the wheat and rye crossing.
In spite of the increase of 0.91% (48 million hectares = 118,608,000 acres) in the planted area, when compared to 2004, the 2005 estimated harvest is 2.54% smaller than that of last year, which was 119,369 million tons.
When compared to the March estimate, there was a reduction of 2.63%, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).
Drought and the negative impacts of freezing on the Central West and South of the country affected specially beans crops, which registered a production drop of 49% in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, and of 12% in the state of Rio Grande do Sul.
ABr