Banco do Brasil, Bayer, Nutrien Soluções Agrícolas and Jacto are Embrapa's partner companies and co-founders of AgNest, “the first living laboratory to promote innovation for the agricultural sector in Brazil (leaving lab)”, announced the President of the Company , Celso Moretti, in a press conference this Wednesday (27/04). The four companies will form, with the public company, the management board of the innovation hub. Installed on a 60-hectare farm in Jaguariúna (SP), next to one of Embrapa's research centers, AgNest received funding from the Ministries of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (MAPA) and Science, Technology and Innovations (MCTI).
The initiative, characterized by combining scientific knowledge with entrepreneurship in the generation of digital and sustainable solutions for national agriculture, follows a public-private governance model that has Embrapa as the anchor institution in RD&I. One of AgNest's differentiators will be the availability of connectivity throughout the farm, with commercial and developing technologies, a perfect environment for the advancement of digital agriculture. It offers complete infrastructure for the development of solutions that involve three aspects: field experimentation, digital agriculture and agricultural sustainability.
AgNest has a building structure for offices, a smart lab, a maker space and coworking areas for interaction, collaboration and events, a field and support area, where startups can develop, test, validate and demonstrate new technologies, from the ideation phases to commercial operation, in a rural environment fully connected and strategically positioned in the innovation ecosystem of the interior of São Paulo. It is inserted in Agricultural Innovation Corridor of the State of São Paulo, an ecosystem of agricultural innovation that covers the axis formed by the municipalities of Campinas, Jaguariúna, Piracicaba, São Carlos and Ribeirão Preto. The works are in the final phase of execution, expected to be completed in July 2022.
The president also announced data from Embrapa's Social Balance which, in 2022, will gain a special 25th anniversary edition. In 2021, every 1 real invested in Embrapa generated R$23,38 for Brazilian society, a return greater than 23 times the total invested. The Company's social profit was R$81,56 billion which, in the words of Celso Moretti, “demonstrates to society the significant impact of the company's operations in Brazil, especially in 2021, a year still marked by the Covid pandemic- 19”.
When addressing the Embrapa's social profit over the last 25 years (R$ 1,2 trillion), Moretti mentioned the three Embrapa solutions with the most significant contributions to this amount: Biological Nitrogen Fixation (FBN), which brought a social profit of around 240 billion reais. In other words, without the discovery of this improved technique by Embrapa and its partners, Brazil would have spent R$240 billion in 25 years on the purchase of nitrogen fertilizers, in addition to significantly increasing the emission of CO2 equivalent into the atmosphere. In the same vein, the Agricultural Climate Risk Zoning (ZARC) enabled savings of around R$123 billion and the BRS Marandu crop, widely disseminated among livestock farmers across the country, represented R$105 billion in social profit for society and in economics for the agro sector.
According to the 25-year Special Social Report, Embrapa's annual return to society during this period was around 12 times the public resources invested in the company.
When talking about the outstanding technological launches on the occasion of Embrapa's anniversary, Moretti reported, first-hand, the projections of significant growth in wheat production in Brazil in 2022, in the order of 13%, both in area and in production volume. “We will go from 2,7 million ha to 3,1 million ha and from 7,5 to 8,5 million tons produced this year.”
The BRS Tarumaxi wheat cultivar, recommended for RS and SC, is one of the technological launches announced on Embrapa's 49th anniversary.
Discover the details of this and other technological launches:
• BRS Integra, the Brachiaria ruzizienses for ILPF systems
• Embrapa's first soybean cultivars with Xtend® technology
• Caatinga Platform: intelligence and data analysis platform
• Tilaplus: new genomic test helps tilapia farmers improve production
• Cupuaçuz clones resistant to witches' broom
Closing the press conference, Celso Moretti announced the launch of Brazilian Agro Future Vision Platform which consolidates signals and trends in the sector, pointing out the main challenges in each of the eight megatrends identified at the end of a major strategic intelligence work. “This Vision is the result of the efforts of more than 300 specialists and national agricultural leaders, the analysis of more than 120 documents and discussions that took place at more than 30 national and international events”, highlighted the president of Embrapa, who then explained best three of the eight megatrends, explaining their connection with the Company's operations: biorevolution, digital agriculture and the growth of integrated systems.
Due to the growing demand for sustainability in all areas of human activity, the biorevolution refers to the fact that the world is increasingly urged to promote a bio-based economy. Sustainability has, in fact, become a premise. "In this line, Embrapa has been investing heavily in the development of bio-inputs. Proof of this is BiomaPhos, launched in 2019”, recalled Moretti. The bacteria-based product allows plants to capture the phosphorus accumulated in the soil, reducing the use of fertilizers, especially in crops of corn and soybeans.
The solutions that Embrapa has been developing since the 1990s gain special prominence at a time when Russia and Ukraine, the largest suppliers of fertilizers to Brazil, are involved in a conflict that highlights the risk of Brazil's high dependence on imports of these inputs. Furthermore, Moretti recalled the FertBrasil Caravana, an action that is part of the National Fertilizer Plan, coordinated by Embrapa. The caravan's focus is on disseminating knowledge about fertilizers in order to increase, between 10 and 20%, the efficiency of the use of these inputs by Brazilian producers. "This could represent between 1 and 2 billion reais in savings for Brazil this year alone", according to Celso Moretti.
The consolidation of AgNest mentioned at the beginning of the interview is the most recent example of Embrapa's work in facing the challenges highlighted by the Digital Agriculture megatrend. The use of drones, artificial intelligence, IoT and other digital resources was further intensified during the pandemic, including in the agricultural sector. “AgNest will be a great catalyst for agricultural entrepreneurship, promoting startups, in short, a true nest of good ideas as its name suggests”, reinforced the president of Embrapa. He recalled, however, that Brazil needs to respond to the great challenge of expanding connectivity in rural areas as, today, 73% of properties lack connectivity.
Finally, when addressing the megatrend of growth in integrated systems, Moretti recalled the contributions of ILPF systems to sustainable and decarbonizing agriculture, capable of producing food, fibers and bioenergy. Driven by science, Brazilian agriculture will continue to contribute to ensuring food security in Brazil and the world, believes Celso Moretti.
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