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Brazil develops tropical wheat and predicts self-sufficiency in 5 years

ukragroconsult.com

11–20 of 255 posts

Re: Brazil develops tropical wheat and predicts self-sufficiency in 5 years

#11
post #3

Self-sufficiency is not a real metric when it comes to commodities. Wheat sells at the market rate to whoever buys it.

Wheat prices fluctuate according to USD/BRL rates and this is one of the reasons Brazilian inflation gets significantly affected by exchange rates -- which is expected, considering how many basic products, like bread, depend on wheat. The prices will still fluctuate like you said, but a local production can give the country some autonomy to design policies and attenuate the impact.

Re: Brazil develops tropical wheat and predicts self-sufficiency in 5 years

#12
This sounds amazing, but at the same time, I am concerned about the rain forest. Obviously more economically useful crops would accelerate repurposing the rain forest. Maybe the world would need to subsidize Brazil more to keep the rain forest? And could Brazil be expecting more subsidy with this development?

Re: Brazil develops tropical wheat and predicts self-sufficiency in 5 years

#14
post #3

Self-sufficiency is not a real metric when it comes to commodities. Wheat sells at the market rate to whoever buys it.

self sufficiency in food is pretty much the most fundamental basis of political autonomy for any nation. It's honestly harder to imagine a 'real metric'

Re: Brazil develops tropical wheat and predicts self-sufficiency in 5 years

#20
post #6

Anyone familiar with the governmental policies of Brazil? They mentioned deforestation twice to say that it's not a problem because this will be done on existing farmland. But, how long that will hold when there's money to be made?

(I live in Brazil)

Since, according to the article, wheat should be planted on already existing crops, I don't think it will be a big issue in the near future. However, soybeans are already a major cause of deforestation, especially in the Midwest, and this extra productivity may boost these activities.

I'm not an expert, but working with multiple crops in the same year can also further deplete soil resources, decreasing the overall productivity and increasing deforestation.

Brazilian politics is extremely messy right now, and it's hard to tell how we're going to face environmental issues in the near future. The recently-elected president has a strong environmentalist agenda, but is fighting with the Congress and may lose support for pushing forward such legislation.

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