Oct 22, 2015
Mato Grosso Farmers Must Now Register Their Soybean Production
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
During the last "soybean-free" period in Mato Grosso (June 15th to September 15th), teams of inspectors from the State Plant and Animal Protection Bureau (Indea) fanned out across the state inspecting 5,300 properties. They ended up notifying 127 landowners of 440 cases of live volunteer soybeans that needed to be destroyed.
Starting with the 2015/16 growing season, the state of Mato Grosso adopted new regulations concerning the dates of soybean planting, soybean harvesting, and the growing of safrinha soybeans. The new regulations now allow soybeans to be planted starting on September 16th and no soybeans are allowed to be planted after December 31st. All the soybeans must then be harvested by May 5th or farmers will face a fine.
In order to enforce these new regulations, all the soybean producers in the state are now required to register their soybean production with the State Plant and Animal Protection Bureau after the soybeans are planted and before the deadline of February 15th. They can either register online or in person at a local Indea office.
The regulations also specifically prohibit the planting of two soybean crops during the same growing season. During the 2014/15 growing season, farmers in Mato Grosso planted an estimated 120,000 hectares of safrinha soybeans, but that is no longer allowed.
All the soybeans in Mato Grosso must be harvested by May 5th, but the official "soybean-free" period in the state won't kick in until June 15th. The 40 day period between May 5th and June 15th is to allow enough time for farmers to destroy any soybeans that may have been spilled during harvest process and subsequently germinated. No fines for live soybean plants will be issued until after June 15th and even then, landowners will be given an opportunity to destroy any volunteer soybeans that are found by inspectors.
Mato Grosso is currently the only state in Brazil that prohibits safrinha soybean production, but the state of Parana has announced that they will prohibit safrinha soybean production starting with the 2016/17 growing season and other states are expected to follow suit.