Brazil says drought reduced corn production by 20.3% in the main season

Introduction: new page 1, January 24 (osterdowjones): according to the Department of agriculture of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, on Thursday, the Department of agriculture of the state in the southern part of Brazil predicted that due to the dry weather, the soybean production was 15.3% lower than previously expected, and the corn production in the main season was 20.3% lower The lack of rainfall for more than a month has reduced soybean production to 5.443 million tons in 2001 / 02, down from the December estimate of 6.426 million tons, a 21.5% drop from the previous year's harvest of 6.935 million tons, officials said The yield of corn will be affected even more The main season corn is expected to reduce by 979000 tons to 3.842 million tons, 36.9% lower than the previous year's yield of 6.09 million tons The data are based on reports from more than half of the counties in the state as of January 23 Rio Grande do Sul is the third largest soybean producing state and the second largest corn producing state in Brazil Over the past three weeks, production losses have increased rapidly, especially in the north, northwest and West, where there has been a lack of rain In the last report, the state's agriculture department estimated that by the first week of 2002, 2.8% of the soybean crop would not be harvested and 5.5% of the main season corn would not be harvested HPJ other crops in the state are also affected by the weather and drought Overall, the grain and oilseed production in 2001 / 02 was reduced by 2.063 million tons or 12.4% to 14.64 million tons HPJ, but economists at fecoagro, another agricultural union in the state, believe that if there is rainfall, there is still a chance that soybeans will recover, because 75% of soybeans are still growing However, there is little chance of corn yield recovery, because 70% of corn has entered the advanced growth stage On Thursday, fecoagro's economists forecast a loss of 14.7% in soybean production and 18.6% in corn production in the main season The weather forecast says there will be more rain in the area next week HPJ's soybean production accounts for about 15% of Brazil's total output of 41.5 million tons to 43 million tons, accounting for about 14% of the main season corn output of 29 million tons to 30 million tons HPJ