Brasilia, April 22, 2026 (Lusa) - The rise in extreme heat is reshaping agriculture in Brazil, with growing impacts on production and food security, according to a report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) released on Wednesday. The document, prepared in collaboration with the World Meteorological Organisation, said that extreme heat was becoming one of the most serious global threats to agriculture, simultaneously affecting crops, livestock, fisheries, and forests.
In the Brazilian context, the report included a specific study on the 2024–2025 heatwave, highlighting the combined effects of high temperatures and drought across vast agricultural regions.
The report said that these phenomena were linked to climate change, amplified by a strong El Niño, and were likely to become more frequent and intense in the coming decades.
The FAO said that extreme heat acted as a risk multiplier, exacerbating existing impacts on food production through crop failures and reduced national output, including in livestock farming, which placed upward pressure on food inflation.
Regarding soybean production, Brazil's leading export, the FAO noted that production was severely affected, as temperatures “exceeded the critical limit of 30°C” on more than 60% of days during the growing season.
Due to heat stress, the official estimate of the Brazilian soya bean harvest was reduced by almost 10%, resulting in millions of tonnes of food being lost.
The extreme heat also encouraged the proliferation of pests, such as whiteflies and fungi, which attacked potato, bean and sugarcane crops in various producing areas in the state of São Paulo.
Livestock farming was also severely affected, with impacts recorded all over Brazil.
Dairy farming suffered a significant impact on cow health and productivity, particularly in south-eastern Brazil, according to the document.
Additionally, the report said cows under severe heat stress produced less milk and could produce offspring with reduced performance, representing an irreversible economic loss for rural producers.
2024 saw the highest number of fire outbreaks and burnt areas since 2010, with the most pronounced peaks occurring in the Central-West of Brazil, affecting the Amazon, Pantanal and Cerrado biomes.
“The forest fires devastated an area equivalent to the size of Italy and caused severe atmospheric pollution from microparticles,” FAO said.
The report highlighted that without human-induced climate change, devastating phenomena such as the fires in the Pantanal in 2024 would have been “100 times less likely” across Brazil.
Regarding the Amazon rainforest, the FAO warned that the combination of extreme heat, drought, and environmental degradation could diminish the Amazon's resilience, increase the risk of fires and affect the forest’s role in regulating the global climate, estimating that around 7% of the forest would be destroyed for every degree of global temperature rise above the 1.5°C limit.
The study also said that if forest growth turned negative, the region would face a critical risk of becoming a net source of emissions, which would accelerate global warming, drawing attention to a feedback mechanism generated by the loss of forest cover and soil exposure, which it said caused the region to warm.
According to the FAO, “in parts of the Amazon, this feedback cycle involving exposed soils can increase the local effects of warming more than three-fold”, exacerbating the climate impact.
MYMA/MYAL // ADB.
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