Brazil is again set to ban planting of winter soyabeans in three centre-west states from June 15 for three months to prevent the spread of Asian soya rust disease, private analysts Celeres said in a weekly report.
It follows advice from the government's agricultural research agency Embrapa that the ban is needed for a second successive year in Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul and Goias to stop rust spreading from the main summer soyabean crop.
Agriculture ministry officials were not immediately available for comment. Farmers who ignore the winter planting ban may have their crops destroyed or be fined. Despite last year's winter planting ban, Embrapa estimated that the disease, which thrives in warm and wet conditions, resulted in the loss of 2.67 million tonnes of soyabeans this year, similar to losses in the previous harvest.
Farmers spent $2.2 billion, mostly on fungicides, to try and control the disease, but experts said that sprays were often used at the wrong time. Despite the production loss, this year's crop is officially estimated at a record 58 million tonnes.
Since the wind-borne disease reached Brazil in 2001/02, the country has lost an estimated $7.7 billion in soyabean output and expenditure on crop protection. Brazil is the world's second-biggest soyabean grower and exporter after the United States.