Brazil Eyes Wheat in the Heat to Tackle Ukraine Grain Shortage
With dozens of countries hungry for the grain, Brazilian scientists bank on tropical wheat expansion.
www.wsj.com
—Deep in the sweltering savanna of central Brazil, a quiet farming revolution is under way, promising relief as Russia’s war in Ukraine sparks food shortages.
Here in the tropics, growing wheat—a crop best suited to mild temperatures—was once considered a crazy idea. Now, new varieties of protein-rich “tropical wheat” created by state agronomists are already starting to reap record harvests and profits.
With higher prices attracting farmers, analysts are predicting as much as a 40% increase in national wheat production to almost 11 million tons this year.
“Brazil has everything it needs to become one of the world’s biggest producers,” said Celso Moretti, an agronomist and head of Embrapa, Brazil’s agricultural research agency. Currently a net importer of wheat, Brazil has the capacity today to triple wheat production to 22 million tons on existing farmland in the next few years, turning the country into one of the world’s 10 largest exporters, he said.
This is good news for Somalis and other Africans , less forex going to buy buur canjelo. Wheat is profitable enough for konfuris to grow it instead of sesame
