Inter-annual analysis of soybean and corn yield in relation to water deficit in a transitional zone between subtropical and tropical climate

Abstract

Biofuels from soybean and corn oil can potentially create new markets in Brazil. The key to a stable biofuel production is the use of high-yielding varieties tolerant to environmental stresses. The inter-annual variability of rainfall caused by large scale meteorological phenomena, such as El Niño-Southern Oscillation and irregular distribution of precipitation has been a major cause of uncertainty in agricultural production in Brazil. The objective of this study was to perform an inter-annual and interregional analysis of soybean and corn yield in relation to water deficit in a transitional zone between subtropical and tropical climate in southern Brazil. The study was conducted in the state of Parana (22-26ᵒ S), one of the main soybean and corn producing areas in the country. The state was divided into six regions (Northwest, North, West, Midwest, Southwest, and South), and the year with the highest productivity in each region was used as a reference to calculate the relative yield losses per year. These losses were correlated with the accumulated water deficit between November and January. The relative yield losses of soybean and corn had a nonlinear relationship with water deficit within each region. Based on the market prices of each year, we estimated that the total losses due to water deficit over the nine growing seasons were $8.36 and $2.67 billion for soybean and corn, respectively. In terms of productivity, the South region showed the highest stability, whereas the Northwest region the lowest stability in response to water deficit. The results show that inter-annual and regional variability of water stress play an important role in soybean and corn productivity in the transition zone between tropical and subtropical climate in southern Brazil.

Contribuições das pesquisas agrometeorológicas do IAPAR

“…Não há tendência de aumento ou redução de períodos secos nas diferentes regiões do Paraná (Salton et al, 2021). Ao longo do ano a irregularidade das chuvas ocasiona períodos secos de curta duração (veranicos) que podem causar severos danos às culturas, dependendo da fase do ciclo em que ocorrem (Zaro et al, 2018;Ferreira et al, 2020). A caracterização dos veranicos foi realizada para cada cultura dentro do projeto de zoneamento agrícola do Paraná.…”

“…No caso do café houve também a mudança do perfil de consumidor, buscando bebida de melhor qualidade, produtos mais sustentáveis e ecologicamente corretos. Assim, as pesquisas com café se ampliaram e temas iminentes como atenuação de altas temperaturas e excessos de radiação (Zaro, 2018;Perini e Morais, 2016;Morais et al, 2019) e qualidade da bebida (Gomes Santis et al, 2018;Rosisca et al, 2016;Kitzberger et al, 2018;Ribeiro et al, 2019) passaram a ser foco de pesquisas. Em todos esses tópicos de estudos, os Tabela 1.…”

Biostimulants in Corn Cultivation as a Means to Alleviate the Impacts of Irregular Water Regimes Induced by Climate Change

“…Corn, mainly cultivated outdoors, is one of the main crops affected by irregular water regimes, complicating decision making about planting and cultural management [3]. In the case of corn, a lack of soil moisture can cause various morphophysiological changes, such as an increase in oxidative activity, a decrease in photosynthetic rates, and a reduction in productivity [4,5].…”