Lula highlights Embrapa’s role in the growth of national agriculture

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva participated, this Thursday (25), in the ceremony celebrating the 51st anniversary of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa). In his speech, he highlighted Embrapa’s role in the development of national agriculture, especially in the Cerrado, and promised to work to guarantee resources to meet the company’s needs.

“It’s such an absurd thing to imagine that a knowledge center like Embrapa stops carrying out research because it lacks R$1 million, R$2 million. I would say that it is everyone’s irresponsibility,” said Lula, provoking the president of Embrapa, Silvia Massruhá, to present the company’s projects.

“And it’s not my kindness, no, it’s recognition of what Embrapa means to this country. What we need to calculate is that every cent we put into Embrapa returns to this country in thousands of reais, which are transformed into dollars and which make us the largest exporter of meat, soybeans, corn, than want,” he said.

Lula said that Embrapa is the maximum reference for Brazilian technology and defended the dissemination of the company’s solutions for agriculture throughout the world. He cited, as an example, that solutions for the Brazilian Cerrado can be used in the African Savanna.

“50 years ago, no one would give a penny for land in the Cerrado. They said: ‘this land is no good, the trees don’t even grow, they become crooked’. Until Embrapa came with research and transformed the Brazilian Cerrado into an extraordinary thing of agricultural production, making Brazil reach the top of production, with few people in the world capable of competing with Brazil”, he said.

The president of Embrapa, Silvia Massruhá, and president Lula, at the ceremony celebrating the company’s 51st anniversary – José Cruz/Agência Brasil

Partnerships

During the ceremony, Embrapa established seven technical cooperation agreements, two of which have international scope: one with the World Bank and the other with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica). The remaining five form new partnerships with the Finance ministries; Agrarian Development and Family Farming; of Agriculture and Livestock and Science, Technology and Innovation, in addition to involving the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) and the Interstate Consortium for Sustainable Development of the Northeast (Consórcio Nordeste).

Technological solutions for agriculture were also launched and tributes were paid to Embrapa professionals and researchers. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva received a seedling from a pequi tree that produces fruits without thorns, developed by the company.

Embrapa is a public company, linked to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, which was created in 1973 to develop technological solutions for an agriculture and livestock model suited to Brazilian conditions. In celebration, Embrapa is holding the Embrapa 50+ event, the revolution of the future begins now, with activities until Saturday (27) at the company’s headquarters.

The company reported that it has entered a new cycle, aligning its agricultural research actions with national and global agendas, such as food, climate, energy and digital transition.

Food sovereignty and security; healthy foods and new consumption trends; socio-productive inclusion and combating hunger and poverty; single health; multifunctionality of agriculture and low-carbon agriculture; and conservation and rational use of biodiversity are examples of emerging issues that are in Embrapa’s focus.