Nufarm announces finalist projects for its 'Conscience and Ethics in Agribusiness' Award

For the sixth consecutive year, the Australian company Nufarm and the NGO Enactus Brasil award the Nufarm Award for Conscience and Ethics in Agribusiness. The initiative recognizes entrepreneurial ideas that encourage family agricultural production and generate income for socially vulnerable communities in the Center-South region of Ceará. 

This year's edition of the award has the participation of more than 200 students, as well as executives, businesspeople and academics. The following six projects will compete in the final, next December, in the capital Fortaleza: Botão Verde, Bio+, Hortus, Hidrolife, Maní and SerTão Sustentável.

Planned by Faculdade Vale do Salgado (FVS), in the city of Icó, the Botão Verde program resulted in an increase in income for 10 farming families who plant and sell spicy vegetables at the Gama Community Association, in Icó.

Uniting the municipal elementary school Maria Guiomar B. Cavalcante, in Pacatuba and the Maracanaú unit of the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Ceará (IFCE), the Hortus project promoted health and environmental education in the Metropolitan Region of Fortaleza . The program included cultural workshops, physical activities and also increased the income of families in the region through the sale of vegetables.

The Federal University of Ceará (UFC) will compete in the Nufarm Prize final with the Maní project, developed in the Curimatã Community, in the city of Pacaju. This initiative took sustainable flour production to the homes of local farming families, with the development of machinery that does not use electricity to peel cassava.

The Federal University of Cariri (UFCA) undertook the Bio+ project, anchored in the production and sale of food in communities of Barbalha, Crato and Juazeiro do Norte. One of Bio+'s differences was the invention of a biodigester that allows animal manure to be reused in the production of biofertilizer and biogas, a substitute for cooking gas.

Also at UFCA, Crato campus, the Hidrolife project consisted of the development of hydroponic systems for growing animal forage, a supplementary raw material for feeding poultry, sheep and goats. The hydroponic techniques created by the UFCA team were also used in the production and sale of agroecological vegetables, to generate income.

Sixth finalist, the SerTão Sustentável project, from the Sobral campus of the Vale do Acaraú State University (UVA), helped the community to develop good practices in food production and the use of agricultural pesticides. The UVA team trained 12 community members on correct waste storage and created the 'sustainable bodega', an itinerant stall that sells food that would otherwise be discarded by producers.