8/19/2005 (EFE News Service) - Although Brazil slightly increased itscropland this year, its grain harvest will wind up being almost 5 percentless than in 2004, mainly due to adverse weather factors, officials saidThursday.

In 2005, Brazil's harvest of cereals, legumes and oilseeds will amount to113.5 million tons, according to the crop forecast released by thestate-run IBGE statistics institute and based on July data.

The harvest will be almost six million tons less than in 2004, when thecountry brought in 119.4 million tons of the crops in question.

The 2004 harvest had been smaller than that of the prior year, when Brazilproduced 123.6 million tons, the largest harvest in the country's history.

The falloff in this year's harvest is attributed by IBGE experts to the20.61 percent drop in production in southern Brazil due to the prolongeddrought there.

Of the 48 million hectares (120 million acres) cultivated this year - anincrease of 0.5 percent over last year - 23 million hectares (57.5 millionacres) are planted in soybeans and 8.7 million hectares (21.7 millionacres) in corn.

Brazil is the world's largest exporter of soybeans, the harvest of whichlast year amounted to some 50 million tons.

The soybean harvest forecast for this year will come in at 3.31 percenthigher than last year, according to IBGE.

In addition to the weather factors, Brazilian farmers have also been hurtthis year by a reduction in international prices for some products, anincrease in production costs and more expensive and harder-to-get credit.

The appreciation of the real against the dollar this year has also hurtfarmers because of its negative effect on exports.