More than half of the Brazilian carrot crop
is harvested from the fields in Minas Gerais.
The crop of this State accounted for 394 thou-
sand tons of the 780.6 thousand tons pro-
duced in Brazil in 2014, according to a survey
by Municipal Agricultural Production (MAP),
a department of the Brazilian Institute of Ge-
ography and Statistics (IBGE). In the Coun-
try, the vegetable occupied a total area of 23.1
thousand hectares, of which, 8.4 thousand
hectareswere located inMinas Gerais. Average
productivity throughout the Country was esti-
mated at 33.8 tons per hectare, smaller than
the nearly 47 tons achieved in that State. Oth-
er relevant producers of this vegetable are the
states of Goiás, Bahia and Rio Grande do Sul.
Researcher Agnaldo Carvalho, of Embrapa
Vegetables, in Brasília (DF), notes that average
yield now ismore than twice the 14 or 15 tons
of carrots per hectare in the early 1980s. Sever-
al factors have a say in this evolution. “The de-
velopment of cultivars for the summer played
a fundamental role in the soaring average yield
during the year, along with the expansion of
the vegetable to other agricultural regions”, he
asserts. In the past, the cultivations were con-
centrated in the South and Southeast, and cul-
tivated in winter. The new cultivars allow for
summer crops and they adapt well to other re-
gions, like São Gotardo (MG) and Irecê (BA).
According to Carvalho, the professional
status of the vegetable growers was decisive
for the bigger number of tons per hectare. The
soils of the Cerrado regions do not have the
same natural fertility levels compared to the
South and Southeast. This required the pro-
CONCENTRATION
The largest producing State, Minas Gerais, concentrates a huge portion of the cultivation in the region known as Alto Paranaíba, which, with an area of 7.1
thousand hectares, harvested345.5 thousand tons in2014, fromIBGEsources. In the region that comprisesSãoGotardo, RioParanaíba, CamposAltos, Matu-
tina and Tiros, the area devoted to the crop ranged from4.5 thousand to 5 thousand hectares in 2015, said agronomistMarcoAntônioCarvalho daCosta, from
EmbrapaTechnicalAssistanceandRuralExtensioninMinasGerais(Emater/MG).Inthesemunicipalities,averageyieldoscillatedfrom38to44tonsperhectare.
The forecast is for the cultivated area to remain at 4 to 5 thousand hectares in 2016. “The factors that contribute toward the higher than average yields
across the region include altitude (from 1,000 to 1,200 meters), favorable climate and the use of high technology”, says Costa. The production is destined
for the food distribution centers in Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. In 2015, the average price fetched by the producers was R$ 30 per 22-kg
box of carrots. “We are talkingabout average prices, that is to say, there are instanceswhen lower prices are paidper 22-kgboxes”, he says. The cost for pro-
ducing one hectare totaled R$ 20 thousand to R$ 25 thousand. The region is home to 60 or 80 carrot producers. Currently, due to the high value of the dol-
lar and the production cost (seeds, fertilizers and pesticides), growing carrots is a real challenge for the farmers.
As principais
MAINVEGETABLES
ducers to master the liming and fertilization
techniques across the region. Furthermore,
the flat topography favored crop mechaniza-
tion, soil preparation with big machines and
mechanized planting with pneumatic machin-
ery and, recently, precision machines resulted
into faster planting operations, lower expens-
es on seed and reduction in thinning out op-
erations. Moreover, the use of center pivot sys-
tems led to the cultivation of big areas with
uniform irrigation. Finally, the hybrid sum-
mer cultivars replaced almost in their entirety
the use of free pollination cultivars in regions
where big amounts of inputs are needed.
According to the researcher, all major
problems in carrot crops are related to fast
soil deterioration, due to frequent soil prep-
aration activities that pulverize the ground.
It happens with the use rotary hoe culti-
vators, or mechanized harvesting on rainy
days. Consecutive plantings of carrots or
crops in succession, infested with the same
diseases, mainly root-knot nematodes, trig-
ger successive disease outbreaks. Produc-
tion costs soar as a result of the high level
of technology in use. “The concentration of
the crop in the hands of big groups or com-
mercial farmers was responsible for keep-
ing in the business only commercial farm-
ers with large-scale production”, he notes.
Brazilian carrot crop of 780.6 thousand tons took advantage of new
technologies and of cultivars developed specifically for the summer
47
Fonte:
IBGE/PAM/2014
– Elaboração:
Nirlene Junqueira Vilela – Embrapa Hortaliças (DF).
A produção de cenoura no Brasil
SINAL AMARELO
Yellow sign
Ano
Área (mil/ha) Produção (mil/t) Produtividade (t/ha)
2012
26,5
780,5
29,5
2013
26,0
780,0
30,0
2014
23,1
780,6
33,8
Fonte:
Agentes de mercado consultados pelo Cepea/Esalq/USP.
Produção de cenoura – estatística
NAS DUAS ESTAÇÕES
In the two seasons
Safra de verão 2014/15
Safra de inverno 2015
(dezembro a julho)
(julho a dezembro)
Região
Área plantada (ha)
Área plantada (ha)
Total
Goiás
1.300
700
2.000
Minas Gerais
5.377
2.123
7.500
Bahia
932
1.000
1.932
Paraná
800
1.200
2.000
Rio Grande do Sul
715
1.350
2.065
Total
9.124
6.373
15.497
