AGRICULTURE:
Brazil Shares Technology
with Africa
By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, (IPS) -
The people of Brazil
have reason to believe
that they are making a
real contribution to
reducing hunger and
environmental threats in
the world by developing
agricultural technology
that has begun to be
shared with poorer
countries.
One example is the
Brazilian Agricultural
Research Corporation’s (EMBRAPA)
new office in Africa,
which was inaugurated
Sunday in Accra by
President Luiz Inácio
Lula da Silva on an
official visit to Ghana.
Brazil has also made
progress in following
many of the
recommendations of the
three- year
International Assessment
of Agricultural Science
and Technology for
Development (IAASTD),
Paulo Galerani,
technical coordinator of
EMBRAPA in Africa, told
IPS.
The IAASTD is a panel
sponsored by the World
Bank and five United
Nations agencies to
examine agriculture from
all angles and determine
how farming might be
done more sustainably in
the future.
The panel, which brought
together more than 400
scientists and experts
from governments, civil
society and the private
sector, produced five
regional assessments and
a synthesis report
approved by an Apr. 7-12
intergovernmental
plenary conference in
Johannesburg, South
Africa that was attended
by representatives of
around 60 governments.
The reports include a
highly critical
assessment of the
direction taken by
agriculture in the
world, which has left in
its wake poverty,
environmental damages
and more than 800
million hungry people.
They also outline future
scenarios marked by
climate change, as well
as recommendations on
the role of knowledge
systems, science and
agricultural
technologies.
Galerani, who took part
in the Johannesburg
meeting, said the
technology for the
production of ethanol
fuel from sugar cane
represented an advance
in the search for more
efficient and lower-cost
biofuels, which he said
help alleviate climate
change -- a claim that
has been called into
question, however, by
environmentalists and
others.
Brazil, and especially
EMBRAPA, a network of 41
research centres, has
also made huge strides
in biotechnology that
have helped reduce the
use of pesticides and
fertilisers and improve
crop resistance to
drought and pests, he
said.
These are advances in
know-how and technology
that Brazil plans to
"transfer and adapt" to
Africa, which will thus
benefit from them
without having to lose
"so much time," said the
researcher.
EMBRAPA’s Africa office,
which began to be set up
in July 2006,
contributes to
development on two
fronts: small farms,
based on the experience
of research centres that
are active in Brazil’s
impoverished semi-arid
northeast; and
commercial agriculture,
the head of the office
in Accra, Claudio
Bragantini, explained to
IPS.
The first case involves
less developed countries
that have productive
potential but on a small
scale, similar to the
situation in Brazil’s
northeastern region,
where there is a heavy
concentration of family
farms, which under the
Lula administration have
benefited from a major
expansion of soft loans
and technical support.
The second case targets
"countries that have
vast available
grasslands, with good
topography and
possibilities for
large-scale production,"
similar to Brazil’s
central Cerrado region,
said Bragantini, who
mentioned Angola, Congo
and Zambia as examples.
The private sector in
Africa rapidly expressed
strong interest in
taking advantage of the
Brazilian technology, to
"my pleasure and
surprise," said the
Brazilian agronomist,
who lived in other
African countries in
previous decades and
said he has seen a big
difference in the
attitude of today’s
farmers.
The technology transfer
began with training
provided by means of
bilateral technical
cooperation and
mechanisms involving
international bodies.
But later the efforts
expanded to include
large farmers in Africa,
who were mainly
interested in Brazil’s
know-how on biofuels, a
variety of agribusiness
products, and livestock
breeding, said
Bragantini.
"The green revolution
has not yet happened in
Africa. It is just now
beginning to take
shape," which makes
support from more
developed countries
extremely important, he
said.
Brazil has put a high
priority on the
development of agrofuels,
with President Lula
making frequent tours
abroad and signing
agreements with a number
of countries.
However, the Brazilian
government and business
community face the
challenge of refuting
loud criticism of
biofuels, which are
accused by many of
driving up food prices.
Brazil seems to be on
the losing end of the
information war, having
failed to demonstrate to
global public opinion
the difference between
the ethanol it has
produced from sugar cane
to replace gasoline for
more than 30 years, and
U.S. biofuels, which are
based on corn and have
accentuated imbalances
in the global food
market.
Lula is convinced that
biofuels present an
opportunity for
agricultural development
in Africa, where he
believes they can reduce
hunger and poverty by
generating incomes and
improving rural living
conditions, while at the
same time helping to
mitigate climate change
by replacing fossil
fuels.
All three of the
objectives laid out by
the IAASTD would thus be
met, if production is
carried out in a
sustainable fashion.
EMBRAPA, which has
played a decisive role
in the agricultural boom
in Brazil, a country
that doubled its output
in 10 years while
expanding the area under
cultivation by a mere 20
percent, is a major
instrument for
environmentally and
socially sustainable
development in Brazil
and assistance to poorer
regions.
The IAASTD, however,
does not exempt Brazil
and the rest of Latin
America from tough
criticism, for leaving
millions of people
steeped in poverty and
hunger despite the
region’s vast extensions
of fertile land, much of
which is concentrated in
the hands of a
relatively few large
landowners.
According to Galerani,
the assessment was
heavily influenced
"ideologically" by civil
society at the start,
tending, for example,
towards outright
rejection of genetically
modified crops and
biofuels. But in the
end, he said, a certain
balance was achieved,
with the concerns of
governments taken into
account, and new
technologies accepted as
long as they are
employed with the
necessary safeguards and
care.
|
