Agricultural irrigation to expand by 4.2 million hectares

AgroLink presents a TCP Partners survey of Brazil's agricultural irrigation market. According to the study, irrigated area has grown 4.7% a year since 2016 and reached 8.2 million hectares in 2021 (IBGE data), with expansion of roughly 50% projected by 2040. Fertigated sugarcane accounts for 35.4% of the area and center-pivot crops for 17.6%; the Southeast holds 39.8% of irrigated land, the South 25% and the North 5.5%. Ricardo Jacomassi, partner and chief economist at TCP, noted that climate variability has always worried farmers and spurred the development of technologies such as irrigation.