Sep 15, 2009
New Soy Variety Tolerant To Rust Available To Plant In Brazil
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
Researchers in Brazil announced that there will be enough seed available of the new soybean variety that is tolerant to soybean rust, to plant approximately 150,000 hectares during the upcoming 2009-10 growing season. This new variety would be suitable for planting in Mato Grosso, Goias, and Bahia.
This variety is not completely resistant to the disease; it’s more on the line of being tolerant to the disease. Farmers who plant this variety will still need to spray their fields with fungicides, the advantage is that they will be able to spray less than in past years. During the 2008-09 growing season in Mato Grosso, the average soybean field was sprayed 2.6 times to control the disease. With this new variety, the scientists estimate that the number of fungicide applications can be reduced to 1.4 or 1.6 times, or maybe even a little less. So, its not the complete solution to the problem, but it will help to save on production costs.
This new technology will save producers about US$ 100 per hectare in production costs. It doesn’t come free of course and the new variety will cost about US$ 15 more for each 40-kilogram sack of seed. Eighty percent of the benefit of the technology will go to the producer in the form of fewer chemicals needed and fewer trips across the field.
Brazilian soybean farmers have been battling this disease for about 10 years and losses due to the disease are estimated at US$ 10 billion. It took a number of years to discover the correct method of controlling the disease, but the disease has now started to develop resistance to some of the more popular fungicides. The same thing is going to happen to this new tolerant soybean variety. Within a number of years, the disease will mutate and overcome this new variety’s tolerance. Brazilian scientist say that they have better resistance in the pipeline and that this is just the first step in the process of trying to keep the disease under control. Soybean rust will end up being a chronic problem that will be kept under control through improved genetics and fungicide applications. The disease is in Brazil to stay and Brazilian farmers will need to develop improved methods to control this ongoing problem.