The minister Tereza Cristina, of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply, and the president Celso Moretti, of Embrapa, on the morning of Wednesday 30th, announced which will be the 48 production hubs through which the Embrapa FertBrasil Caravan will pass, starting next month April.
The dates will be defined by the Caravan coordination, and will follow the planting seasons of each pole and the logistics of travel for the researchers who will give lectures to technicians and rural leaders. The presentation was made remotely, with the participation of more than 300 people, at Embrapa channel on Youtube.
The Caravan will visit more than 40 cities in 10 Brazilian macro-regions, with the aim of promoting increased efficiency in the use of fertilizers and inputs in the field and encouraging the adoption of new technologies and good soil, water and plant management practices. The expectation is to benefit more than 20 thousand producers and offer digital training to more than 10 thousand professionals, with an impact on more than 70 million hectares of agricultural areas.
The action is among the short and medium term measures of the National Fertilizer Plan, launched this month by the Federal Government to reduce external dependence on imports of products and technologies, a situation worsened by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
For minister Tereza Cristina, on her last day in office, the importance of the Caravan in facing the current global scenario reinforces the opportunity to add information to the Agriculture Observatory. “It’s the chance to take advantage of so many professionals traveling the country so that we have more information that allows cross-references and projections related to the Brazilian harvest, inputs and upcoming problems, so that we are always ahead of what could happen,” she said.
The minister thanked Embrapa and its researchers for the 3 years and 3 months in which she was at the head of the Ministry and committed to returning to the Chamber of Deputies, as a partner and defender of modern, science-driven agriculture.
According to President Celso Moretti, this is a difficult time related to the import of fertilizers. “This generates a growing demand that has already been increasing in recent times, due to the energy crisis in China and the increase in fertilizer consumption in Brazil, of around 10%”, he commented.
“Embrapa, with the supervision of Mapa, then defined a very short-term action, which we are now starting in April to contribute to strategic actions for the benefit of agriculture,” he said. “We estimate that a 10% increase in the efficiency of fertilizer use could result in savings, according to our calculations, of up to 1 billion dollars in the next harvest, in direct costs to rural producers”, he added.
Representing the working group that built the FertBrasil Caravana project, researcher José Carlos Polidoro, from Embrapa Solos, presented technical information about the action. “The scenario is a perfect storm that has been brewing over the last 20 years in Brazil, in which demand has increased by 300% in fertilizer consumption – which is good – but our national fertilizer production has shrunk by 30%, leading us to import in 2021, 90% of the fertilizers used in the country”, he commented.
He also highlighted that the measures are not reactions to the Covid 19 pandemic, the supply crisis and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. “We got ahead of this,” he said.
The Caravan will start in Mato Grosso Sul and São Paulo, followed by Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina, Paraná, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso and Rondônia, Goiás, Distrito Federal, Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí, Bahia, Amazônia, SEALBA (Sergipe , Alagoas and Bahia) and Rio de Janeiro. Regarding the technical content of the Caravan, Polidoro highlighted the recently released document guiding the agricultural suitability of Brazilian lands and the Agricultural Climate Risk Zoning, tools of continuous and fundamental use that show how and where to plant.
“The main point of this initiative is good practices for the efficient use of fertilizers, we are going to provide information about new methodologies for supplying nutrients, that is, what works and what doesn’t work for the farmer to invest in”, he explained, adding further refined digital solutions that help producers increase efficiency in the field and sustainable technologies.
Polidoro highlighted and thanked the sponsors and partnerships, including CNA (National Confederation of Agriculture), Brazilian Association of Plant Nutrition Technology Industries (Abisolo), Senar, Organization of Brazilian Cooperatives (OCB) and Rede ILPF.
Participating in the Caravana presentation meeting were Guilherme Bastos, national secretary for Agricultural Policies; Fernando Camargo, secretary of Innovation, Sustainable Development and Irrigation at Mapa and president of the Board of Directors of Embrapa (Consad); Tiago Toledo Ferreira, executive director of Institutional Management at Embrapa, Renato Rodrigues, president of the ILPF Network Management Council and Bruno Caligaris, director of strategic projects at the Secretariat of Strategic Affairs (SAE), of the Presidency of the Republic, who highlighted the importance of the path joint effort between the institutions that resulted in the Caravan and what it will actually bring to producers across the country.
In the macro-region of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina, researchers will visit Pelotas, Santa Maria, Três de Maio and Passo Fundo, in the first state; and Chapecó, Campos Novos, Canoinhas and Itajaí, in the second. In São Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul, the Caravan will pass through Dourados, Chapadão do Sul, Assis and Ribeirão Preto. Four other cities will be part of the itinerary in Paraná: Londrina, Ponta Grossa, Cascavel and Guarapuava.
Minas Gerais also had four cities chosen: Uberaba, Patos de Minas, Unaí and Passos. In the macro-region of Mato Grosso and Rondônia, researchers will pass through Sinop, Campo Novo dos Parecis, Primavera do Leste, Querência and Vilhena. In Goiás and the Federal District, the Caravan will pass through Rio Verde, Uruaçu and PAD-DF.
In MATOPIBA, six cities will be on the route: Luís Eduardo Magalhaes, in Bahia; Palmas, Guaraí or Pedro Afonso, in Tocantins; Ferries, in Maranhão; and Bom Jesus and Uruçuí, in Piauí. In the Amazon, five locations: Redenção, Paragominas and Santarém, in Pará; Boa Vista, in Roraima; and Macapá, in Amapá.
In the SEALBA macro-region, four cities were chosen: Rio Real, in Bahia; Neópolis Plateau, in Sergipe; and Arapiraca and Coruripe, in Alagoas. Finally, in Rio de Janeiro, the Caravan will pass through Nova Friburgo, Tanguá and Campo de Goytacazes; and Domingos Martins, in Espírito Santo.
The Embrapa FertBrasil Caravan has already received financial support from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (MAPA), through a Decentralized Execution Term (TED), in the amount of R$ 1,6 million reais. The ILPF Network, one of the Caravan's sponsors, confirmed the contribution of R$ 250 thousand reais to also support the events.
This will be the second traveling caravan carried out by Embrapa. Between 2013 and 2015, the company also visited the country's main production centers to promote technological solutions to control the Helicoverpa armigera caterpillar, an exotic pest that invaded Brazilian territory, causing severe damage to the main agricultural crops.
According to Paulo Galerani, coordinator of the Embrapa FertBrasil Caravan, the teams will not be able to visit all the important cities, so each chosen hub will have a city as a reference, but technicians from other surrounding cities will be called to participate.
“For example, Santa Maria, in Rio Grande do Sul, will host the meeting that will reach Santa Maria, Cachoeira do Sul, São Gabriel, Bagé, Dom Pedrito, Rosário do Sul, Alegrete, Quaraí, Uruguaiana, Tapes, Camaquã, Jaguarão , São Lourenço do Sul, Arroio Grande, Torres, Santa Vitória do Palmar, Rio Grande, Tramandaí, Osório, Caçapava do Sul, Encruzilhada do Sul and Piratini", explains Galerani.
He also highlights that the dates for the first itineraries will be announced in the coming days, when all the planning and logistics for researchers' travel are completed. It also highlights that, as new sponsors and supporters of the action are defined and allocate more financial resources, new locations may be included throughout the Caravan, which will be held until the end of 2022.
"Our objective is to raise awareness among leaders linked to agricultural production chains, as well as technicians, consultants and multipliers, so that Brazil can overcome the fertilizer crisis through training and systematized knowledge exchange between research institutes and the productive sector , establishing a research dialogue with agribusiness in Brazil, proposing technological solutions for each of these 48 agricultural hubs", explained Celso Moretti, president of Embrapa.
According to him, the itinerant caravan will address practical issues with an immediate impact, which, when adopted, could, together with other initiatives of the National Plan, promote savings of up to 20% in the use of fertilizers in Brazil, already in the 2022/23 harvest, which could result in up to a billion dollars in savings for Brazilian rural producers.
Soil and water management strategies for the rational use of fertilizers will be systematized by Embrapa in modules of a standard lecture adapted to the different conditions of Brazilian biomes, which should level and customize the information for each of the country's producing regions.
At the end of the presentations in each production hub, technological knowledge needs will be aligned, followed by a broad debate on the main problems encountered in each region. In some regions, the efficiency of some of the technologies developed by Embrapa will also be demonstrated through Technological Reference Demonstration Units.
The face-to-face activities will be aimed at rural extension technicians, technicians from cooperatives, unions and rural associations, and leading producers, aiming to reach around 10 thousand professionals, making them multipliers of the techniques and guidance passed on by the team of researchers and analysts from Embrapa and partners who will integrate each Caravan.
After each passage of the Embrapa Caravan in an agricultural macro-region, Embrapa will digitally modulate the systematized knowledge to feed a hotsite and contribute to the construction of a broad digital knowledge platform on the topic, which can be offered to reference multipliers, such as CNA/ SENAR, EMATERs and agro-industrial cooperatives.
This modeling of the Embrapa FertBrasil Caravan will involve face-to-face training during its passage through the various producing regions in Brazil, but virtual training is also being programmed, post-caravan, for producers, rural leaders and technicians, using Embrapa's e-Campo system or other training tools available. The company is currently seeking sponsors from the private sector and the production sector to make this second phase possible. Those interested in participating in the initiative can contact the research management area via email at depd@embrapa.br.
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Research indicates that the best strategy is to monitor both pests early, to detect the presence of these insects in the orchard and monitor the population until control levels are reached, avoiding fruit loss.
