SLC Agrícola (Schneider Logemann & Cia, ) is one of the largest

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

ian agricultural producer founded in 1977 by the SLC Group. It focuses on

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor p ...

soybean The soybean, soy bean, or soya bean (''Glycine max'') is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean, which has numerous uses. Traditional unfermented food uses of soybeans include soy milk, from which tofu ...

, and

corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn ( North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. ...

. The business is controlled by the Logemann family. It was the first company of its sector (grains and cotton) whose shares were traded in a Stock Exchange. The company operates 16

farms A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...

in six Brazilian states, totaling in the 2014–15 marketing year – of which were

plant Plants are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic eukaryotes of the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all curr ...

ed with soybean, 98,500 with cotton, 43,400 with corn, and 18,100 with other

crops A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. When the plants of the same kind are cultivated at one place on a large scale, it is called a crop. Most crops are cultivated in agriculture or hydroponi ...

, including coffee,

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeolog ...

, corn seed, and sugarcane. Its biggest competitor is Vanguarda Agro. The company headquarters is Santana, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The firm has attracted international attention for its part in the

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then land conversion, converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban area, urban ...

of the

Cerrado The ''Cerrado'' (, ) is a vast ecoregion of tropical savanna in eastern Brazil, particularly in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Minas Gerais, and the Federal District. The core areas of the Cerrado biome are ...

region of Brazil. Hq335132068

History

SLC Agricola was founded in 1977 with the acquisition of two farms in the South Region of Brazil in Rio Grande do Sul, where soybeans, corn, and wheat were planted. In the agribusiness for 70 years, SLC Group started as an industry in 1945, in

Horizontina Horizontina () is a municipality in Rio Grande do Sul, in southern Brazil, with 19,389 inhabitants in 2020. It is located 496 km north of the state capital. The first settlers were German, Italian and Polish immigrants who arrived in th ...

, southern Brazil, producing tractors and combines, and creating a joint venture with John Deere in 1979, which lasted for 20 years. In 1980 SLC Agrícola bought the first farm in the cerrado biome: Pamplona Farm in Goiás State.

SLC Group

SLC Group was founded in 1945 in the city of

, State of Rio Grande do Sul, by three families of German immigrants, among them the families of Balduino Schneider and Frederico Jorge Logemann. The SLC Group founded the first Brazilian harvester manufacturing industry. It has an over-28-year relationship with

John Deere Deere & Company, doing business as John Deere (), is an American corporation that manufactures agricultural machinery, heavy equipment, forestry machinery, diesel engines, drivetrains (axles, transmissions, gearboxes) used in heavy equipment, a ...

, including a joint venture for manufacturing harvesters and

tractors A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or construction. Most comm ...

from 1979 to 1999.

Land distribution

SLC Agrícola holds of farmable land worth R$2.376 billion. That area is distributed through 16 farms, and each farm name starts with P and has 8 letters. Three of SLC's farms (Planeste, Panorama, and Piratini) are controlled by SLC Agrícola's subsidiary LandCo. Two other farms (Perdizes and Paladino) are farmed by SLC Agricola through a joint venture with Mitsui Co., while Pioneira is farmed in collaboration with Dois Vales Group. Farms: # Perdizes - (joint venture with Mitsui Co.) # Paiaguás - # Planorte - # Pamplona - # Planalto - # Pioneira - (joint venture with Dois Vales Group) # Planeste - (LandCo.) # Parnaíba - # Parnaguá - # Paineira - # Parceiro - # Paladino - (joint venture with Mitsui Co.) # Palmares - # Panorama - (LandCo.) # Piratini - (LandCo.)

Research units

Each SLC farm is equipped with a research unit, where the main research topics are fertilizing systems; soil handling systems; competition between soy cultivation, cotton cultivation, and corn hybrids; plantation seasons and rehearsals of evaluation of fungicides efficiency, insecticides, and herbicides. There experiments simulate the real land conditions and are conducted scientifically. SLC Agrícola performs 190 yearly land tests, and such tests happen in an area of .

Cultivation rotation system

The cultivation rotation systems between soy, cotton, and corn is effectively utilized within all of SLC Agrícola's farms and provides several benefits to the productive system, along with spreading the fixed costs. The use of this technique helps the farms have better control over infective plants, fewer outbreaks of pests and diseases on the fields, and better usage of the machinery and crew.

Soil management

SLC Agrícola adopted a no-till system with the goal of significantly reducing the levels soil loss, water loss, and nutrients loss. With this system in place, it became possible to reduce the production costs through the reduction of machine operations in the fields and the conservation of soil and nutrients, which consequently reduced the need for heavy and expensive fertilization. The system provides long-term increase in productive potential of the cultivated plantations. The company believes that the sustainability of the productive system mainly depends on the correct management of the soil.

Soy

SLC Agrícola is one of the biggest soy products of Brazil, with plans to plan in 2013–14. The company culottes soy in the main agricultural regions of Brazil, and its production is commercialized to both national and international markets. Soy is the main supplier of vegetable protein used to feed humans and animals, and it is also broadly used as raw material for the production of oil and biofuels. SLC Agrícola integrates the executive committee of Round Table on Responsible Soy Association, committed to making the value of soy more responsible and also to implementing a global system to promote production, processing, distribution, and consumption of responsible soy. Productivity: * 2013–14: * 2014–15: The area harvested until 30/04/2015 corresponds to 82% of the of cultivated soy.

Deforestation

SLC Agrícola has come under scrutiny from the environmentalist

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

Global Witness Global Witness is an international NGO established in 1993 that works to break the links between natural resource exploitation, conflict, poverty, corruption, and human rights abuses worldwide. The organisation has offices in London and Washi ...

for its practices of large-scale

, particularly in the

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syst ...

. Similarly,

Chain Reaction Research Chain Reaction Research is a think-tank, which conducts research about deforestation-relation topics and commodities. It is based in Washington DC. It provides material about resources effected by deforestation such as palm oil, soy, cattle, ca ...

also found that the firm has deforested much of the Cerrado, estimating that the firm has cleared for the production of

soy The soybean, soy bean, or soya bean (''Glycine max'') is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean, which has numerous uses. Traditional unfermented food uses of soybeans include soy milk, from which tofu and ...

. This figure was corroborated by SLC Agrícola, which admitted that it had cleared in 2020 alone, although the firm insists that said clearing was done legally. Nevertheless, SLC Agrícola denies it is deforesting the Cerrado, instead saying that it is simply removing "vegetation", and that its properties are not located on land with forests. Chain Reaction Research also condemned the firm for a "lack of zero-deforestation commitment". In addition to criticism from non-profits, the

Government Pension Fund of Norway The Government Pension Fund of Norway ( no, Statens pensjonsfond) comprises two entirely separate sovereign wealth funds owned by the government of Norway. The Government Pension Fund Global, also known as the Oil Fund, was established in 1990 t ...

has divested its holdings of SLC Agrícola due to the firm's large-scale deforestation.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:SLC Agricola Agriculture companies of Brazil Companies listed on B3 (stock exchange) Companies based in Rio Grande do Sul Economy of Porto Alegre Brazilian companies established in 1977 Agriculture companies established in 1977