Double cropping in Brazil – A boost for crop production

UNICA 2012, CONAB 2014, own calculation, D. cropping in Cerrado (data from selected states of Cerrado)

CONAB 2014, own calculation: D.cropping in Goias

There has been a strong increase in Brazilian grain production during the last 30 years – e.g. corn production went up from 3.4 million ha to 8.7 million ha (+ 250 percent). Double cropping, which means planting two crops in a field in the same year, summer soybean (rainy season) with a winter crop of corn has become well established across Brazil's grain belt over the last ten years and is therefore a key driver in the expansion of corn production.

There are two main prerequisites for such a change: Early maturing soybeans had to be bred which can be harvested by late January or early February. Corn is seeded right after soybean harvesting and stays on the fields until early June. The second technical progress which made it much easier to directly plant corn after soybeans is herbicide resistance varieties. Since there is no time to control weeds before seeding it can be done in the corn crop rather easily.

While the amount of hectare with “normal corn production” has decreased by 0.7 million ha in the Cerrado region within the last 13 years, the corn acreage under double-cropping has gone up by almost 5 million ha (+300 percent) from 1.5 million ha in 2002/03 up to 6.4 million ha in 2014/15 (CONAB, 2014).

Double cropping is an important tool for farmers in the Cerrado region as it increases the utilization of the farm’s assets (e.g. machinery, fixed labour, etc.), improving also agronomical conditions due to the implementation of more crops in the rotation (avoiding soybean after soybean) and enables no-till by keeping the soil covered throughout the year. However, double cropping is still not an option for all farmers, since enough water must be available for the growth of the corn. Officially, around 30 percent of the total soybean area is cropped with corn in the second season, but in some regions, this share reaches more than 70 percent.