Who will be the best Brazilian agriculture minister?

Brazil is a privileged country. We have highly competent people and, above all, with fundamental leadership qualities. A wise man like Alysson Paolinelli, a woman of quality like Ana Amélia. An experience of production chains and international strategic vision like Luiz Carlos Corrêa Carvalho, from ABAG.

A special technical knowledge like that of Ivan Wedekin, who will receive the Ruy Miller Paiva medal from the IEA on November 7th. An agronomist professor of the year, founder of Pensa at the University of São Paulo, like Décio Zylbersztajn. Deep experts such as Pedro de Camargo, Francisco Turra, Eumar Novacki, current executive secretary of the ministry. Minister Roberto Rodrigues himself, with global experience and competence in negotiation, is deputy Teresa Cristina.

There are many names, but who would be the best agriculture minister for the global challenges we will face? It needs to have a very strong legitimacy of representation that speaks on behalf of the vast majority of rural producers in the country, including family farming. You need to really know what an agribusiness is, the relationship with retail trade.

You need to know the difficult management of Brazilian logistics and infrastructure and markets. It has to be a symbol of modern leadership with strong democratic roots, but one that knows how to make things happen.

You need to master the fundamentals of future markets, banks, services, and even live production chains. Food security and innovation with intensive sustainability. And ideally belong to a gigantic global network of relationships that will increase exponentially.

Does this human being with this baggage exist? Yes. And where is it, where does it operate?

It's in Brazilian cooperativism. Cooperatives in Brazil, led by Brazilians with this training and background, have overcome the uncertainties of the time, bringing together more than a million rural producers of all sizes, moving more than R$150 billion reais, which means almost 50% of everything we produce in the world. country, and what it means: it is the biggest business within agribusiness.

Many ask me: “Tejon, who would you recommend?” The final answer for me is this: we have excellent people prepared, and you should have a great list with their names. However, I now recommend a cooperative leader, capabilities such as Galassini, from Coamo, Lanznaster, from the Aurora system, Lang, from C.Vale, Mânica, from Cotrijal, Chavaglia, from Comigo, Jaime Basso, from Sicredi, Márcio Freitas, from OCB , among many great names of leaders of Brazilian cooperatives.

There are countless, many: Baggio, from Bom Jesus, Dilvo, from Coopavel; Zé Vicente, from Coopercitrus, Carlos Alberto, from Cooxupé, Coopeavi – Espírito Santo, Luiz Lourenço, from Cocamar, and great Brazilians; Forgive me for those not mentioned, as I would need an exclusive newspaper just to record them all. Integrity Brazilians with legitimate democratic and leadership experience to achieve, with everyone, and not just with a few.

For the best image and representation of Brazilian agriculture in the world, I recommend a cooperative leader who has led and proven the possibility of human overcoming alongside millions of producers and their families in the last 30 years in this country. This leader knows how to make things happen for everyone, not just a few. And he knows how to run a gigantic business on the scale of a multinational, a large cooperative. A great ministry. For minister a cooperative leader.