How is the soybean rust situation in Brazil?
Soybean rust first appeared in Brazil in the year 2000. Initially, there were significant losses attributed to rust until Brazilian scientist and farmers developed effective measures to combat the disease. Soybean rust will be a chronic problem for Brazilian soybean producers, but it’s not the devastating disease it was when it first appeared in Brazil. Today, Brazilian farmers have better knowledge about how to combat the disease and they have better tools to do the job. Brazilian scientist have now developed soybean varieties that are tolerant to the disease and even more effective resistance to the disease is being incorporated into new soybean varieties. Today, the average Brazilian soybean field receives 1.8 to 2 applications of fungicides to control rust. Even with more tolerant varieties, Brazilian farmers will still need to apply fungicide, but at a lower frequency. When soybean rust first appeared in Brazil, soybean losses totaled several million tons per year. In recent years
