An agriculture lobby group in Brazil’s Parana state has applied to the country’s agriculture ministry for a 10-day planting extension for the state’s second corn crop to guarantee crop insurance, local media has reported.

The move came after the group, the Parana Cooperative Organisation (Ocepar), had seen a 20-day extension already knocked back by the Ministry of Agriculture.

The ministry acted amid fears about delays to the state’s soybean harvest, which left farmers fearful that they could miss the optimal corn planting window.

The status of insurance for the second corn crop will be crucial, as it is planted on the same fields after the country’s huge soybean harvest is complete.

Any delay is likely to expose the safrinha corn to tougher conditions, denting its potential.

“The soybean harvest is fully underway… the issue is regarding Parana and Mato Grosso do Sul, which encompass roughly 33% of the entire safrinha output,” one Brazil-based market source said, where delays in soybean planting and harvest due to hot and dry conditions have been acute.

“It has to do with insurance. In southwestern Parana, farmers are not allowed to plant corn after February 20. In western Parana, the final date is February 28,” Daniele Siqueira of Parana-based consultants Agrural told Agricensus.

“If farmers plant later than that, they have problems with insurance,” Siqueira said.

 

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