Dec 15, 2009
Nematodes Pose Growing Threat To Brazilian Soybean Production
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
Brazilian soybean farmers have a lot to worry about - prices, high costs of inputs, a strong currency, weather, as well as diseases and pasts. In recent years, they have added nematodes to the list of pests that can attack their soybean crop. Nematodes are microscopic worms that live in the soil and feed on the roots of the soybean plant. Heavy infestations of nematodes can significantly reduce soybean yields. U.S. scientists believe that nematodes are the number one yield-robber in U.S. soybean production.
Low-level nematodes infestations have been impacting Brazilian soybean fields for many years, but the situation has grown worse as monocrop soybean production has spread throughout Brazil. The best way to control the pest is the use of resistant soybean varieties and to rotate the infested field to a non-host crop such as corn. The problem in Brazil is that probably less than 20% of Brazil's soybeans are rotated. The constant production of soybeans in the same field year after year leads to an explosion of nematodes.
An additional problem with nematodes is that the population is not static. If resistant soybean varieties are grown, the nematodes in the field mutate into new races that can overcome the resistance. In U.S. soybean fields dozens of different races of nematodes have been detected. It is in a sense a never-ending "arms race" between the plant breeders and the nematodes. Nematodes are going to be a chronic problem for Brazilian soybean producers just like soybean rust. The best the farmers in Brazil can hope for is that there will be sufficient funding for public and private plant breeders to try to keep ahead of the curve.