Brazil: Onion is the first vegetable included in the country’s climate risk agricultural zones

Brazil ’s climate was once considered one of the best for the implementation and development of many crops due to soil and nutrient conditions, as well as the distribution of rainfall and temperatures. However, climate change has increasingly altered this, increasing the risks for agricultural production in certain locations and times of the year.

It was with this in mind that the National Agricultural Zoning Program for Climate Risk (ZARC) was created, which aims to delimit areas and times of the year with low risk for rural producers to carry out planting. Onions are the first vegetable included in the program, for all Brazilian regions.

"ZARC defines low-risk areas and times of the year for the implementation and production of the crop in Brazil, with the aim of providing producers with information on agro-climatic risks to reduce production losses and obtain higher yields."

The main idea of ​​the program is that, by following the recommendations of the ZARC, farmers run less risks, that is, they are less subject to climatic adversities and can still benefit from various state subsidies such as the Agricultural Activity Guarantee Program (Proagro) and also the Rural Insurance Premium Subsidy Program (PSR).

It is important to highlight that many financial agents only release rural credit for crops in areas zoned by the ZARC, especially in the case of medium-sized producers who access the National Program to Support Medium-sized Rural Producers (Pronamp).

The onion in Brazil

The onion is, without a doubt, the most widely used vegetable in the world. It is a basic ingredient in almost every dish, especially in Brazil. It is grown in different Brazilian locations, but is most concentrated in the southern region, parts of the southeast — such as São Paulo and Minas Gerais —, parts of the central west — such as Goiás — and also in parts of the northeast — such as the states of Bahia and Pernambuco. All of this represents about 95% of the national production.

Despite being present in almost every dish, Brazilian production ranks 13th in the world, with a production of around 1.6 billion tons per year.

In Brazil it is possible to produce onions at different times of the year due to the size of the territory and its climatic diversity.

However, most onion production is concentrated in the months from March to November and is sufficient to supply almost exclusively the domestic market, meaning almost no onions are exported.

According to the researcher from Embrapa Hortaliças de Brasília, it is of utmost importance that producers use only tested and recommended cultivars for each location and time of year, since there is a technically oriented base of rural assistance and extension companies trained in each area.

How is climate risk assessed for crops?

There are several criteria for assessing the climatic risk for a given crop, and one of them that is considered very important in the program is that the producer pays attention to the areas that have already had the occurrence of white rot (Stromatinia cepivora Berk.sin. Sclerotium cepivorum), considered one of the main diseases that can even cause the total loss of onion production.

And of course, one of the most striking points that made onion the first vegetable to enter ZARC is that the crop is highly influenced by weather conditions, i.e. water availability, photoperiod, temperature and rainfall are crucial elements for crop development. In fact, due to the high sensitivity of onion to lack of water, the crop is grown almost exclusively under irrigation.

Onions were introduced into the ZARC with the aim of reducing the risks for producers by taking into account the best time of the year and which area is most suitable for good development.

Due to these factors, onion cultivars available for production in Brazil are divided into two groups: short days (requiring at least 12 hours of daily light to bulb) and intermediate days (requiring 13 hours or more of daily light).

Considering the climatic risks and the needs of each cultivar, the ZARC established the sowing dates (ten days) in municipalities favorable to onion cultivation, which were separated with climatic risk levels of 20%, 30% and 40% depending on the following criteria:

• severe water deficiency due to not reaching the minimum limit of the water needs satisfaction index (ISNA), in a rain-fed system;
• very low temperatures, harmful to crops due to the probability of minimum temperature values ​​lower than or equal to 11°C;
• very high temperatures, harmful to crops due to the probability of maximum temperature values ​​exceeding 34°C;
• Excessive rain or excess water harmful to the crop due to the probability of accumulated precipitation greater than 130 mm in the final stage of ripening and at harvest;
• excess rain or excess water due to the probability of accumulated precipitation greater than 150 mm, in the implementation phase of the crop when it is carried out by direct sowing or sowing of seedlings;
• excess rain or excess water due to the probability of accumulated precipitation occurring greater than 210 mm, in the implementation phase of the crop when it is carried out using bulbs.

Where to find the results

ZARC’s national studies meet the objectives of the National Agricultural Climate Risk Zoning Program. Compliance with the planting dates recommended by ZARC is mandatory for producers who wish to access the Agricultural Activity Guarantee Program (Proagro) and the Rural Insurance Subsidy Program (PSR).

The results of the ZARC onion are available in the MAPA (Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock), in the Indicator Panel, and in the ZARC Plantio Certo application (IOS, Android).

News reference: MAPA - Map includes onion in Climate Risk Zoning .