Brazil farmers plant 84 percent of estimated soya area

Soya farmers in Brazil have planted 84 percent of the estimated area of the 2017/18 crop, advancing 11 percent on last week's level, helped by the return of rain, consultancy AgRural said in a statement on Friday. Most of the key producing regions have nearly completed planting, including center-west Goias state, where work at one point lagged behind all other states due to a drought at the start of the planting season, AgRural said.
At this time last year, soya farmers had planted 83 percent of the estimated area while the five-year average is 79 percent, AgRural said. "Overall, planting is advancing without major hiccups and fields are developing well all over the country," AgRural said. The consultancy estimates Brazil's total soya planted area this year will reach 34.65 million hectares.
In both Mato Grosso and Paran? states, Brazil's first and second-largest producing regions respectively, planting has reached 96 percent of the estimated area, AgRural said. Reduced rains in the new farming frontier region of Matopiba, in northern Brazil, as well as lower temperatures in the South, caused concern this week, AgRural said. But these factors were not severe enough to compromise planting or yields, the consultancy added.