Profitability of soybean crop, corn and bean grown under conditions of upland

Abstract

The climate, particularly water availability, presents itself as a limiting factor to obtain yields close to the productive potential of crops, being the major cause of interannual variability in grain production and income in different regions of Brazil. In this context, this study aims to identify and characterize the effect of water stress on the yield of soybean crops, maize and beans and on the costs, gross income and profit from these in the region of Santiago, RS. Therefore, we used the calibrated DSSAT system and validated for the conditions and cultures being studied, and used the historical period 1961-2010 to generate production data for each crop. Data were adimensionalizados building on the potential production of each culture, establishing frequency histogram for assessing the risk of production loss in respect of each crop. Later they used historical data series costs and selling prices of crops in the same study period for performing simplified economic analysis. In terms of production, bean, corn and soybeans in 65%, 50% and 41% of the years, respectively, achieved yields below 50% of the potential of these crops. In economic terms, the biggest cost; gross income and average income are associated with corn, followed by the bean crop and soybean, respectively. The three crops, soybean, corn, beans, showed significant reductions in production and consequently profit depending on water restriction.