Embrapa and IICA strengthen partnership for cooperation with Africa

The president of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), Sílvia Massruhá, and the director general of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Manuel Otero, agreed to develop an international agenda of joint work to strengthen research and agricultural innovation and the global positioning of sustainable agriculture. Meeting at Embrapa headquarters in Brasília (DF), both signed an agreement to facilitate international technical cooperation actions and promote the exchange of public policies, technologies and knowledge, which, according to them, will soon be converted into concrete actions for the benefit of the agricultural sector. 

The General Director of IICA, at the meeting, announced the creation of the “José Ireneu Cabral Fund”, endowed with an initial capital of 100 thousand dollars to finance exchanges of agricultural researchers to facilitate the presence of African researchers in Brazil, specifically at Embrapa, aiming to to the development of regenerative tropical agriculture in Africa. 

There are also plans to take Brazilian researchers to Central America and the Caribbean, two regions that need, like Brazil half a century ago, to strengthen their agricultural sector and increase local food production. 

José Irineu Cabral was the first CEO of Embrapa, appointed in 1973, when this lawyer and economist who dedicated his life to the development of the agricultural sector was representative of IICA in Brazil. 

In addition to developing cooperation projects with Africa, Embrapa and IICA have committed to working together in institutional spaces at COP29, to be held in Azerbaijan in November, and at COP30, which Brazil will host in 2025. 

In this sense, the Director General of IICA invited the President of Embrapa to participate in the technical and political activities of the pavilion of the House of Sustainable Agriculture of the Americas, which IICA will install in the Azerbaijani capital, as it did in 2022 and 2023 in Egypt and the Emirates United Arabs.  

The pavilion has become a relevant space for governments, research organizations and the private sector in the Americas to showcase the total commitment of hemispheric agriculture to food security and global sustainability, also contributing to raising awareness and positioning agriculture in general as a fundamental activity for peace, sustainable development and decarbonization of the economy. 

Otero also offered Embrapa a support office at the IICA headquarters in San José, Costa Rica, with the aim of collaborating in the creation of a tropical agriculture platform in the Americas. 

“Our continent produces 30% of the world’s food. It is time for a new axis between agriculture and the environment, with the inclusion of new actors, transformations and digital cooperation, which is why Embrapa is a fundamental partner that brings science and innovation. And when it comes to food security, Latin America and Africa, due to their agricultural potential, represent the present and the future. And in Africa, when we talk about Brazil, we talk about Embrapa”, said Otero. 

Massruhá praised IICA's role as a driver of collective action and agricultural innovation and said that the new scenario - which involves nutritional transition, sustainability, traceability and climate change - “requires the productive inclusion of small and medium-sized producers”.  

Of the five million rural producers in Brazil, only 10% are large exporters and we have three million who need to add income. To do this, they need access to technology to reduce costs, improve management and be sustainable. The challenge is great, but so is the motivation, and the role of partners like IICA is fundamental”, said the president of Embrapa. 

Embrapa is considered one of the largest agricultural research organizations in the world and its mission is to provide innovation, generation of knowledge and technologies for agriculture in Brazil. Created in 1973, it is a public company dedicated to developing the technological bases of a genuinely tropical agriculture and livestock model and ensuring Brazil's food security and a leading position in the international food, fiber and energy markets. 

Otero visited Embrapa accompanied by his Special Advisor Jorge Werthein, the IICA Representative in Brazil, Christian Fisher, and the IICA Representative in Argentina, Fernando Camargo.