Brazil has a deficit of 8 million soil analyses per year, indicates IBRA megalab

Brazil, one of the world's largest agricultural powers, faces a silent bottleneck that threatens its competitiveness, the lack of adequate diagnosis of cultivated soils. According to an estimate by the Brazilian Institute of Agronomic Analyses (IBRA megalab), based on technical insights from Embrapa Solos, the Agronomic Institute of Campinas (IAC), and the Coordination of Integral Technical Assistance (CATI), the country has an annual deficit of about 8 million soil analyses — equivalent to R$ 1 billion in untapped economic potential among the country's soil laboratories. This "analytical gap" indicates that millions of hectares are managed without a scientific basis on soil fertility, resulting in inefficiency in the use of inputs, productivity losses, and increased environmental impacts. Despite the advancement of precision agriculture, agronomic diagnosis has not kept pace with the expansion of cultivated areas. "Without soil analysis, there is no possible precision ...