From Der Spiegel, August 18:
A new wheat variety in Brazil thrives in high heat and arid climates. The country hopes it will not only lead the country to self-reliance, but also make it a major contributor to the global supply.
Paulo Bonato’s freckled hand gently caresses the tips of his wheat plants. The sun is blazing down from the sky and the soil in the central Brazilian savannah is as red as the rusty hull of a ship. Yet the lush, deep green wheat field looks as though it could be in the heart of Bavaria. The wind rustles the dry leaves of the neighboring cornfield, producing a sound akin to a tropical rain shower. But the last time it has rained here, says Bonato, was on May 16, almost three months ago.
Bonato repeatedly grabs a wheat stalk and rubs it between his fingers, checking the ripening grains for potential fungal infection or pests. "I have to see them every day," he says. "I can feel how they are doing." Bonato, a 62-year-old farmer and landowner, holds the world record for tropical wheat production. Nobody achieves harvests as bountiful as his.
Bonato is a protagonist in a slow-motion revolution taking place in the surroundings of the Brazilian capital, Brasilia – one which is rapidly gaining momentum. The vision involves Brazil, a country whose climate and soil conditions are really only good for wheat farming in the milder regions to the south, becoming a major producer. President Jair Bolsonaro recently announced that the country will soon be able to take care of its wheat needs on its own. "In 10 years," he said, "we will export the equivalent of what we consume in Brazil." Since then, the country’s self-sufficiency has been discussed frequently in the media.
Harvest shortfalls triggered by drought in traditional wheat producers like Canada combined with shortages resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine have focused global attention on wheat. Prices for the grain have risen sharply, which has made more cost-intensive farming in subtropical regions more attractive.
"Wheat is one of the most important suppliers of calories for humanity," says Celso Luiz Moretti, head of the state-owned Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa). He hopes that his innovations will ultimately provide an important contribution to global nutrition. "If there are regions of the world where we can still expand the production of foodstuffs, then it is the tropical and subtropical areas."....
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