BRAZIL: Drought Takes Toll on Transgenic Soy

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava* - Tierramérica

RIO DE JANEIRO, Mar 31 2005 (IPS) - Drought in southern Brazil has reduced this year’s soybean harvest dramatically in Rio Grande do Sul state – and added fuel to the heated national debate about transgenic crops.

Genetically modified (GM) soy, which accounts for the majority of soybean production in the southern state, suffered greater losses than conventional soy varieties, according to reports by local growers.

That is to be expected, says Narciso Barison, president of APASSUL, a state association of seed producers, because transgenic seeds are smuggled into Brazil from Argentina and are not intended for the local climate, so proved less resistant to the water shortage,.

The conventional varieties, developed by national Brazilian agencies, certified and adapted to the region, had better results. The differences in crop loss varied according to the conditions of each field, reaching ”a maximum of 25 percent” for non-GM soy, he said.

The U.S.-based agribusiness giant Monsanto, which developed a GM soybean resistant to its glyphosate herbicide – thus increasing potential sales of both products – rejects the comparison of its transgenic variety with the local conventional varieties.

”The intensity of the drought does not allow us to verify differences in yields,” said Ricardo Miranda, Monsanto development director in Brazil.

There are two more factors, according to Miranda, that determine the performance of transgenics in drought conditions: the GM variety facilitates and promotes direct planting – no need for tilling so the soil retains more moisture – and allows greater control of weeds, which otherwise compete with the crop for the scarce water available.

The drought that has dragged on for five months in Rio Grande do Sul is harshly punishing soybeans, which are planted primarily in October and November.

The governmental rural technical assistance and extension agency, EMATER, calculated a 61 percent decline in the average yield of soybean fields in the state, falling from an expected 2,007 kgs per hectare to just 782. As such, the predicted 8.3 million tonnes of soybeans from the harvest will be only around 3.2 million tonnes.

Monsanto’s RR (Roundup Ready) soy seed began to be smuggled into the state almost 10 years ago, and its presence grew to 80 percent of the total area planted with soy, according to assessments that for obvious reasons cannot be exact.

In the last two years, faced with fait accompli, the government tried to grant temporary legal status to the banned transgenic soy through a court ruling made in 1999.

Now, with the Biosecurity Act approved by the Brazilian Congress on Mar. 2, a definitive solution is sought for the legal uncertainties surrounding the use of biotechnology in agriculture in this country.

Clandestine cultivation of GM seed and the legal confusion of recent years produced a critical situation for soy seed producers in Rio Grande do Sul. The local companies were pushed out of the market by the growing presence of contraband transgenic seed, which they themselves could not legally produce.

Now that the drought has ”proved” the advantages of the varieties created for the local climate and soil conditions, there should be a race by the soy farmers for certified Brazilian seed, but there are not enough stocks to supply the market, said Barison.

The multiplication of transgenic seed to meet demand throughout Rio Grande do Sul state would require three years, and the conventional (non-GM) varieties are currently insufficient as a result of the low demand in recent years.

As a result, soy production in Rio Grande do Sul, which represents more than 15 percent of national output, will take some years to recover its previous volume. For the next planting season farmers will have to use their own seed, of low quality worsened by the drought.

”It is an opportunity for a deeper debate on the country’s agricultural development model,” said Altermir Tortello, coordinator of FETRAF-Sul, a federation of family farmers in the southern region, and member of the government’s food security and economic and social development agencies.

In his opinion, the drought ”has been a big lesson,” not only about the transgenic issue, but also about monoculture.

The so-called ”green revolution” – begun in the 1970s in Brazil with widespread mechanisation of farms, over-use of chemical inputs and focus on a limited number of crops for export – is one of the causes of the current drought in the south, or at least contributed to worsening its impacts, says Tortello.

The green revolution model was implemented with widespread deforestation, drainage of wetlands and intensive use of water supplies, throwing ecosystems out of equilibrium, he said.

In Rio Grande do Sul, ”one can travel hundreds of kilometres without seeing any forest, only soy fields.”

Small farmers who were attracted to monoculture of soybeans because it seemed at the time to be a ”goldmine”, have now gone bankrupt, says Tortello, who advocates ”a change in the model” in favour of crop diversification, which would also foster environmental and social sustainability.

Transgenics strengthen and intensify the monoculture export model, which concentrates land ownership in the hands of a few, pushes out and impoverishes small farmers and furthermore degrades the environment, he said.

Barison, meanwhile, defends the free marketing of transgenics so that farmers can choose the variety that is most convenient for them. In his opinion, the soybean farmers in the south ”are paying for the risk they assumed” when they planted illegal GM soy, and that the losses were not due to the genetic modification, but rather to inappropriate seed.

Several agricultural technology companies, including the state-run Embrapa, developed transgenic varieties with strong yields, incorporating the gene from Monsanto’s Roundup Ready which includes resistance to glyphosate herbicide.

Miranda believes that if the Brazilian Biosecurity Act enters into force in the form in which Congress approved it, there will be rapid expansion of transgenic crops because of the high demand by farmers.

(* Originally published Mar. 26 by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Environment Programme.)