Soybean production and its impact on profitability

Brazil is the largest global producer of soybeans, accounting for about 35% of global production. The soybean planting area in South America has significantly increased from approximately 22 million hectares in the 2000s to over 68.6 million hectares today. Similarly, soybean production has increased more substantially, from around 55 million tons in the 2000s to about 235 million tons today. The yield has improved from 2.5 t/ha in 2000 to approximately 3.4 t/ha in the current crop.

Several factors have contributed to the increase in soybean productivity in South America, such as: improvement in agricultural techniques, increased use of fertilizers and correctives; biotechnologies with herbicide resistance and pest and disease tolerance; genetically enhanced seeds with greater productive potential, more efficient agrochemicals, among others.

Despite the significant increase in soybean yield in South America, several challenges still need to be addressed to keep that tendency.

• production environment: climate, soil, and water management account for over 60% of the yield.
  
  
• nutrition: adequate and balanced nutrition.
  
  
• genetics: soybean varieties have contributing about 40 kg/ha/year.
  
  
• agronomic management: diseases, weeds, and pests, better planting techniques.

Managing soybean diseases is a complex process that requires knowledge about  pathogens, environmental conditions which favor disease development, and available management strategies. By adopting an integrated approach, farmers can reduce disease-related losses and improve soybean productivity. 

The use of DigiFarmz has shown that bad disease management could cause  losses up to 29 kg/ha/day of delay due to the timing of the first fungicide application, depending on the cultivar. In scenarios with the presence of rust, delaying fungicide application can cause  losses up to 80 kg/ha/day, depending on the cultivar. Using DigiFarmz these losses can be avoided by adjusting fungicide application dates, taking into account factors such as planting date, cultivation location, cultivar, and prevailing climate conditions—without significantly increasing production costs. Determining the optimal dates for fungicide applications is a strategy with a significant financial impact on the producer. 

Sidinei Neuhaus
Agronomist
Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) at DigiFarmz