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MaToPiBa stands for
the productive ag regions of
the states of:
Maranhão (MA)
Tocantins (TO)
Piauí (PI)
Bahia (BA)
Almost 10% of total
Brazilian grain production comes from the MaToPiBa states.
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1 Jan |
Technology
expands production of agricultural frontier
Matopiba Region, which includes border
area of
Maranhao,
Tocantins,
Piauí and
Bahia,
will benefit from investments in
infrastructure and research.
The projections of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply
(MAPA) show that Brazil is a major supplier of food. The region of
Matopiba, an area including the states of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí
and Bahia, has potential for growth of grain production and will
stand out in the Brazilian agricultural landscape for years to come.
The trend shown in the study "Brazil - Projections of Agribusiness
2010/2011 to 2020/2021", released by the MAPA, in partnership with
the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa).
"Technology has been a factor in this new area of expansion of the
agricultural frontier, with substantial investments in land,
equipment and human capital," says the General Coordinator of
Strategic Planning of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and
Supply, Jose Garcia Gasques. The coordinator adds that the benefits
of these new areas are economic growth and income generation.
The productivity of soybeans, cotton, coffee and corn in this region
is high and is favored by research conducted by Embrapa. Areas that
have been settled have features essential for modern agriculture.
Are flat and extensive, productive soils, water availability and
climate, with long days and intensity of sunlight. Gasques notes
that the major limitations are the precarious logistics, especially
in land transport, ports, communication, and in some regions, lack
of financial services.
Among the four states, Bahia is the most significant agricultural
producer. The coordinator cites, for example, the three
municipalities in Bahia with high soybean production: Formosa do Rio
Preto, São Desiderio and
Luis
Eduardo Magalhaes. According Gasques, the development of
Matopiba be confirmed in the coming years with investments in
infrastructure, research and policy measures.
Source: Map |
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17 Dec |
MaToPiBa
- the Frontier agricultural region has GDP growth rates higher than
the national average
The consolidation of agricultural activities in Brazil's Ag Frontier
begins to leave footprints. The most recent GDP figures indicate
that the average evolution of several agricultural towns in the
region far exceeds the national average, according to Jose Garcia
Gasques, General Coordinator of Strategic Planning of the Ministry
of Agriculture.
While traditional farming towns in states such as Paraná have
average growth, the agricultural Frontier Region's GDP growth is 30%
higher than the national average, says Gasques. This is what
happened in
Uruçuí in Piauí, where the GDP from 2000 to 2009 had average
annual growth of 35.5%.
"The agricultural expansion creates demand for new services, pushing
the performance of the entire region and raising incomes", says
Gasques.
source:
Notícias Agricolas
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Piauí consolidates
third place in grains in the Northeast |
15 Sept 11 |
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Piaui
consolidated its position as the third largest grain producer in
the Northeast,
behind the states
of Bahia and
Maranhão. This year's harvest
was 2,262,300 tons of grain, of which 1,144,300 was soybeans.
According to figures provided by the National Supply Company
(Conab), responsible for the monthly survey grain harvest in Brazil,
Bahia produced 7,3 million tons and Maranhão 3.3 million.
After Piauí came the states of Ceará, Sergipe and Pernambuco.
Piauí also
maintains the 3rd position in the planted area. This year's grain
crop in the state occupied an area of 1,146,200 hectares,
compared with just over 3 million hectares in Bahia and Maranhão at
1,583,500. The growth area in Piauí, increased by 13.4%, Bahia and
Maranhão areas grew by 5.4%, 9.1% respectively.
Productivity
increased 44.1% in Piauí, Bahia 5.4% and Maranhão 23%. In Bahia, the
average production per hectare reached 2,387 kilograms per hectare,
Maranhão 2,088 pounds and Piauí, 1.974 million. |
Infrastructure Problems
Hold Back MaToPiBa Development
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Maranhão,
Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia corn and soybean yields increase, but
little in planted area. Advancement is limited by lack of
infrastructure.
The lack of infrastructure is hampering the expansion of grain
production in the region formed by
Maranhão,
Tocantins,
Piauí and
Bahia (Matopiba) and leaving millions of acres of land
economically inactive. The Expedition Safra Gazeta do Povo found
that the expansion of areas of soybean and corn occurs in much
slower rate than projected by the industry.
In four states, the project managers and journalists were faced with
roads in poor condition, overloaded ferries, railways still under
construction and ports not able to keep up with the increase in
production.
In 2010/11, the fields were expanded by only 170,000
hectares. The region would need to plant an additional 650,000 hectares
per year to reach 10 million hectares in a decade, according
to projections released in 2008. The Ministry of Agriculture,
Livestock and Supply (MAPA) estimated that 20 million hectares of
farmland are available in the "new agricultural frontier".
Listed by farmers as the most urgent infrastructure project is the
Maranhão Public Grain Terminal (Tegram), which should be completed
by 2013. The project, which still
requires approval from the National Agency of Waterway
Transportation (Antaq), includes construction of four warehouses,
each with a capacity of 125,000 tons, and a new structure for receipt
and shipment within the
Port of Itaqui in San Luis (MA). With just
one
silo for storage, the Port currently handles two million tons of
grain per year, but is expected to reach 6 million this
decade.
Each new Federal Government Administration sets new competition
deadlines for infrastructure projects. The Transnordestina, which will have
1700 kilometers running between Eliseu Martins (PI) and the ports of Suape
(PE) and Pecem (CE), is under construction and should be completed
by 2013,
as promised by President Rousseff. The construction of the
North-South
is progresses in Tocantins, but those sections already completed are still
little used for transporting the region's production of Pedro Afonso
or Porto Nacional, for example. The paving of Transcerrado
highway, which will pass through the soybean region of Piauí has
been under study for more than a
year.
The superintendent of the National Rural Education (Senar) in
Maranhão, Antonio Luiz Figueiredo, considers the lack of grain
terminals at the ports as the biggest problem for Matopiba. "Today, many truckers
wait up to three days to unload at the port because of the lack of
storage," he complains. With the completion of Centro-Oeste railroads, the
Central-Western states that now use the ports of Santos (SP) and Paranaguá
(PR) will be able to use the northern
and northeast ports.
The infrastructure largely determines the expansion of agricultural
production. The historical series of data from the National Supply
Company (Conab) shows that during the last decade, the Paraná - which
has more better infrastructure than Matopiba - expanded crop areas
in
1.17 million hectares (20%), despite having leas areas available.
In Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia, the increase was 1.4
million hectares in the period (55%), ie, only 240 000 hectares more
than in the fields of Paraná, where the pastures need to be turned
under
to make room the grains.
Source:
Gazeta do Povo |
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