Food miracle in Brazil

One of the guests at a conference organised by Agricultural Business Research Institute was Sotto Pacheco Costa, a former director of EMBRAPA (Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária). He spoke about the process which has completely transformed Brazilian agriculture in three decades. EMBRAPA was established in 1973, to serve as a base of know-how for Brazilian agriculture. Technological development directed by EMBRAPA has been the engine of change for the past three decades. There is no shortage of funding, as their annual budget is USD 0,5 billion, 85 per cent of which comes from the Federal Government As a result of their projects, 112,000 jobs have been created and each dollar invested in technological development has so far yielded a return of USD 13. Cerrados is an area where practically no agriculture existed thirty years ago. Today, 127 million hectares out of 200 million is cultivated land and another 35 million is used for grazing. 40 per cent of Brazilian food production comes from this area. This area can still produce a further 240 million tons of grain, 90 million tons of fruits and 11 million tons of meat, if needed. Today, Brazilians are not simply exporters of soya, they also export the production technology. Sugar cane is a good example of long-term thinking. While most countries are still only debating the possibility of producing ethanol for use as fuel, Brazil has set out to become the number one exporter. .Maintaining continuous development is important, as agricultural production accounts for a third of Brazilian GDP and over a third of total export, 37 per cent of the total workforce is employed in agriculture. The level of subsidies in agriculture is only 3 per cent, compared to an average level of 34 per cent in the EU.