More than 20 experts from various countries will meet virtually during the International Tropical Agriculture Week (AgriTrop), between March 22nd and 26th from 11am to 14pm. The event, organized by Embrapa and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), aims to share the experiences of scientists, environmentalists and entrepreneurs in the sustainable use of technologies to adapt agricultural crops and animals to the climatic and environmental conditions of the tropical belt. . Registration information, broadcast links, schedule and speakers are available on event website.
The expectation is that, from this exchange of knowledge, synergies and partnerships will emerge, as well as subsidies for the coordination of the region at the unprecedented United Nations Food Systems Summit, scheduled for September, in New York.
One of the highlights will be the Brazilian model, which managed to transform the country from a food importer in the 1970s into one of the most important players in global agriculture. Thanks to the tropicalization of agricultural crops and animals, Brazilian agriculture reached a Gross Production Value of almost R$2021 billion in 900, representing around 21% of the national GDP. It is also responsible for 48% of Brazilian exports, with emphasis on coffee, sugar, oranges, ethanol, beef, chicken and soy, and for the creation of approximately 19 million jobs in Brazil. Not to mention that it feeds more than 800 million people in the world.
According to the president of Embrapa, Celso Moretti, science is behind the success of agriculture. The combined efforts between the Company, universities, technical assistance and rural extension companies and other partners have made it possible, for example, for the Brazilian Cerrado to be responsible today for 50% of the grains produced in the country. “Something considered utopian at the end of the 1960s and early 70s”, he comments.
Another prominent example comes from livestock farming. Today, Brazil has the largest cattle herd in the world, with more than 200 million animals. “Agricultural science has meant that today fruits and vegetables are sold from the north to the south of the country”, he adds, remembering that all these advances were achieved with a focus on sustainability, that is, increasing productivity without impacting the expansion of agricultural areas. Proof of this is the fact that Brazil has more than 500 million hectares of natural forests and around 10 million are planted.
For Embrapa's Director of Research and Development, Guy de Capdeville, the event will be a space to strengthen and share sustainable research, development and innovation (RD&I) practices, in order to disseminate this model to other countries in the tropical belt of the Americas. “The idea is to promote synergies that aim to identify opportunities for economic and social growth with environmental sustainability and well-being for populations”, he adds.
The director general of IICA, Manuel Otero, was appointed as a member of the Network of leaders of the United Nations Summit on Food Systems, called Summit's Champions, one of the meeting's four main support structures, whose objective is to define the foundations for positive transformation in the way of producing and consuming food.
“Based on the sustainable development model designed and exported by Brazil, we intend to contribute to positioning tropical agriculture as a value proposition focused on sustainability and offering alternatives for the continent, in the context of the objectives outlined for the world summit”, said Otero . "This event must also be the beginning of a movement for our region, Latin America and the Caribbean, so that the transformations that have been taking place for decades in Brazil's agricultural sector are extended, and no country is left behind in terms of agriculture and livestock , which implies accelerating the process of transforming agriculture in tropical fringe nations, most of which are net importers of food that present technological delays”, he added.
The Week also aims to consolidate the supply of institutional and technological innovations currently available in relation to sustainable tropical agriculture in the hemisphere and to promote the exchange of ideas in order to constitute a permanent dialogue, which encompasses multiple national, regional and international actors, public and private institutions, as well as reference agencies and bodies in international cooperation.
During the International Tropical Agriculture Week, a publication on land-saving technologies developed by Embrapa will be presented to the public. These are systems, products and methodologies, among others, that transcend conceptual issues of sustainable development and propose actions that promote greater production of food, goods and energy, maximizing the use of limited natural resources without expanding the cultivated area.
Among them, the integrated ILPF (Crop-Livestock-Forest) systems stand out, which have proven to be viable production alternatives for the recovery of altered or degraded areas. These systems, which currently occupy an area of more than 11 million hectares in Brazil, are based on the integration of the components of the production system, aiming to achieve increasingly higher levels of product quality, environmental quality and competitiveness.
Biological Nitrogen Fixation (BNF) is another success story in this regard. By using soil bacteria to provide nitrogen to plants, the technology saves the country R$ 22 million per year in nitrogen fertilizers, in addition to not polluting the environment.
The publication also brings other technologies that reduce the impact of agricultural practices on the environment, such as direct planting and biological pest control, and highlights the benefits of their application in various crops of socioeconomic importance in Brazil, such as corn, soybeans, coffee and orange, among others.
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