Ordinance establishes AgroHub Brasil Program

With the aim of supporting Brazilian agricultural innovation ecosystems and environments, as well as publicizing agricultural innovation actions and initiatives, the AgroHub Brasil Program was established. A Ordinance No. 461, published this Wednesday (27/07), comes into force in September.

The program's purposes include encouraging and promoting the creation and maturation of startups, developing innovation initiatives for agriculture, supporting events and challenges and bringing startups closer to potential opportunities to raise public and private resources, nationally and internationally.

The program also seeks to insert rural producers in innovation environments for agriculture, seeking to bring them closer to technology developers, providing opportunities for access and adoption of new technological solutions, improving the quality of processes and products, reducing costs and expansion of revenues in agribusiness.

According to Mapa's Secretariat for Innovation, Sustainable Development and Irrigation, the measure serves to give institutionality to processes that are fundamental to the development of cutting-edge technology for Brazilian agriculture.

Support for technology-based entrepreneurship will be reflected in the future in increased productivity, job and income generation and more innovation in the field.

Research institutions, universities, rural producers, private companies, startups and investors, whether public or private, will be able to carry out projects, develop studies, organize events and promote actions in favor of ecosystems and innovation networks, as defined in work plans for this purpose and under the guidance of the secretariat.

The Program will be promoted by the secretariat through partnerships with public and private institutions, with the possibility of transferring resources, in accordance with the law.

Support for actions to promote the digital transformation of Brazilian agriculture has been occurring through the creation and strengthening of regional innovation ecosystems, which involves actions to coordinate and support technology-based entrepreneurship, the creation of agricultural startups, also known as Agtechs, important pieces to bring new technologies to rural producers.

Today, Brazil has more than 1.500 startups linked to activities and more than 50 innovation environments distributed throughout the country, especially in agricultural regions.

The dynamics of gathering demands, generating solutions and transferring these technologies is a complex process and involves several steps and interaction between different institutions. To accelerate this process, open innovation has been one of the strategies and for this to occur it is essential that there are environments that promote this interaction between program beneficiaries.

Search portal

O AgroHub Brasil portal brings together information about the Brazilian agricultural innovation ecosystem and the main initiatives underway in the country. In addition to information about digital agriculture, connectivity in rural areas and cell phone applications with solutions for everyday life in the countryside, the page provides explanations about support lines and public and private funding for startups.