Agricultural output for Brazil has dropped by almost 3 percent in 2016, while grain production has fallen by about 6 percent in the past year.
The country’s main grain producer, BASF, is blaming the country’s agro-chemical boom and the global commodity market for the drop in output, as well as the fact that it has to pay farmers to take care of the land.
The farm ministry’s latest crop forecast for the 2017-2018 harvest is a loss of about 3 percent, and analysts say that the fall is likely to be even bigger for next year, which will see the country surpass the last record crop output of more than 6.6 million tons.
The fall has hit Brazil’s soybean industry, which has seen record demand for its products and is struggling to keep up with the growing demand for meat.
The country’s soybeans have been the mainstay of Brazil’s economy since the 1970s, but soybean prices have been falling due to a global glut.
The decline in grain production, and the countrys own food shortage, has caused farmers to turn to other crops like cotton, sorghum, and millet.
The loss of wheat and maize in the region has also put a dent in the countryís economic future.
In a statement, the Ministry of Agriculture said that the “significant decline” in grain yields was due to the “unusual weather conditions” and the high price of wheat.
The ministry said that Brazil has seen “a substantial drop in the yield of soybean, the main crop in the national food security, which is why production is being reduced.”
The countrys agricultural production in 2017 was 3.5 million tons, down from 4.5 billion tons in 2016.
The ministry said there was a decline in cotton production by 2.4 million tons from the previous year, and in corn production by 1.3 million tons compared to 2016.
The drop in production is due to Brazilís new agroecosystem, which consists of more land and less fertilizer, said Brazilian agriculture analyst Gustavo Azevedo.