Teachers, experts and researchers gathered in a debate at Pensa-USP on Thursday (30), in São Paulo (SP), pointed out that partnerships with the private sector are a financing alternative for public agricultural research, which is subject to restrictions both state and national levels.
Pensa-USP is a program of the Foundation Institute of Administration – FIA, dedicated to the Governance and Management of Agroindustrial Systems, and has as coordinators professors of the Faculty of Economics, Administration and Accounting of the University of São Paulo (FEA / USP).
According to the Embrapa researcher, Cíntia Curi, the research system that has led Brazilian agriculture to the present stage of development does not guarantee future development. Therefore, he said, the country needs to think about models of research funding in alliance with the private sector. “Only the resources coming from the state will not take account.” As an example of a public-private partnership, the researcher cited the Fundecitrus case.
The coordinator of Pensa, Cláudio Pinheiro Machado Filho, however, pointed out that agreements between the private segment and the Academy often run into bureaucratic, perhaps ideological, issues. “The academic environment is somewhat entrenched in relation to the market.” USP professor Joaquim Machado pointed out that the state of São Paulo is an exception in this regard, stressing that the challenge of these alliances is precisely to marry private and collective interests.
In the debate, we have mentioned experiences developed in other countries, in which work groups are formed that bring together the representatives of the productive chains, among which, of course, the producers, and that stimulate directed research. “It is necessary to negotiate. Rural leaders have to talk, dialogue on an equal footing with the CEOs of agricultural multinationals, “said ESPM professor and agribusiness marketing expert, José Luiz Tejon.
In his participation, Tejon took the opportunity to criticize the message that Brazil needs to pass into the world that will be the great food granary. “This causes fear, because every country has a farmer, every place has agriculture,” he said. According to him, the message that must be worked out is that Brazil will teach, educate the world to produce food through our agricultural technology.
Universities and research centers
The FEA professor and creator of Pensa, Décio Zylbersztajn, stressed that universities and research centers, which already develop Agrarian Sciences, should come closer, in order to work in a network. “That would already be a tremendous gain.”
In addition, according to Professor Machado, agricultural research generally walks to reduce the differences between temperate and tropical agriculture. In this regard, he stressed, technologies will be increasingly “informational”, and less material.
This text was translated by machine from Brazilian Portuguese.