LOSSES REDUCTION IN SOYBEAN HARVESTING: TECHNOLOGY FOR TECHNICIANS AND GROWERS

Abstract

In the last 18 years the National Soybean Research Center (Embrapa Soja), located in Londrina, State of Paraná, Brazil, and the Rural Extension Service of Paraná (EMATER-PR), have promoted short-term training and surveys on losses of soybean grains seeds during harvest. During this period, thousands of combine operators and farmers were trained, aiming at reducing the nation's losses to an acceptable level of 1 bag of 60kg/ha. The short-term training included theoretical and practical classes where the combine components and soybean crop characteristics related to losses were emphasized and methods of avoiding them were taught. The use of the cylindrical cup to measure losses, developed by Embrapa, were also strongly demonstrated. This 18-year program reduced the nation's soybean losses from 4 to 1.7 bags/hectare, saved 16.3 million metric tons of soybean seeds which corresponded to 6.6 million metric tons of protein, US$ 531 million in taxes were collected by the counties where soybeans were grown, and US$ 4 billion was added to the Brazilian economy.