Mauro and multinational leaders discuss expanding irrigation in Mato Grosso

Governor Mauro Mendes discussed, this afternoon, solutions regarding the main obstacles to expanding the areas of irrigable agriculture in Mato Grosso, with representatives of two global irrigation giant multinationals. As in other grain-producing states, the biggest challenges for increasing the area of ​​irrigated agriculture are concessions and electricity.

“Irrigation is fundamental because agribusiness has three major risks: the market, the price of the dollar – most commodities are linked to the dollar – and the climate, which is rain, which no one controls. With irrigation, I believe this climate risk is greatly reduced. You control the water, add it at the right time and with the plant in the correct quantity, productivity is greatly increased. This reduces the risk of price and the level of the dollar so much that it interferes with the result”, argued the governor.

Mauro also assured that the State will work hard in the coming months to resolve the concession problem and also on other equations that impede the advancement of irrigation, such as electricity and financing.

The State government invested around R$7.5 million in a study to identify the potential of groundwater and surface water (rivers, lakes) in Mato Grosso, aiming to increase the area of ​​irrigated agriculture to guarantee grain production, given the gradual reduction in rainfall.

The survey is carried out by the Mato Grosso Institute of Beans, Pulses, Special Grains and Irrigation (Imafir), in partnership with the Federal University of Viçosa and the University of Nebraska, in the United States, and is in the process of collecting the information that will be crossed for calculations on the amount of water available. The forecast is that the preliminary results will be released within 18 months from the Rio das Mortes and Alto Teles Pires basins and the work will be completed in 2026.

Companies also showed interest in installing industry in Mato Grosso given the state’s irrigation potential. One of the options is the Export Processing Zone (ZPE) in Cáceres, allowing exports without paying taxes and with tax incentives for internal and interstate operations.

“They know the potential of Mato Grosso and irrigation and the future of agribusiness. Without irrigation, we have very risky agriculture. Through the study we are carrying out, we will have greater security to show the control bodies that we have with water capacity. We have 200 thousand hectares of irrigated area and we have the potential for 4 million hectares”, said the president of Aprofir, Hugo Garcia

The deputy secretaries of the state secretariat of Economic Development (Sedec), Eulália Olveira and Anderson Lombardi, also participated in the meeting, informs the state secretariat of Communication.