SAO PAULO: Occasional rain showers in soybean areas of Paraná state enabled some soy growers to start sowing their new 2021/2022 crop, agribusiness consultancy AgRural said on Monday.

After the showers, the first fields in the west and southwest of Paraná began to be planted, as these areas received more volumes of rain in recent days, AgRural said.

The expectation is that soy planting will also start this week in isolated areas of Mato Grosso, Brazil’s top grain state, as well as in Mato Grosso do Sul and São Paulo. “Although volumes are still small and more humidity is needed for the beginning of the 2021/22 crop, the rainfall recorded since the end of August is better than those observed in the same period last year,” AgRural said.

However, with models showing high maximum temperatures and scarce rains for the coming days, most producers will tend to wait for even better soil moisture conditions to sow their soy in earnest, AgRural noted.

Brazil is expected to harvest a record grain crop of 289.6 million tonnes in 2021/2022, driven by higher soybean and corn production.

In its first forecast for the cycle starting now, the government projected Brazil’s soybean crop will grow by 3.9% to 141.3 million tonnes, and its total corn output will rise 33.8% to 116.0 million tonnes.