A commission of representatives of the European Parliament was received on Tuesday (03) by Minister Blairo Maggi (Agriculture, Livestock and Supply), who was accompanied by the president of Embrapa, Mauricio Lopes, and the president of the National Agriculture Confederation (CNA) , João Martins, with the aim of getting to know the Brazilian cattle ranch better.
For more than three hours they have had information on how Brazil has spent the last 40 years as a major importer to one of the world’s largest food exporters. In his presentation, Minister Blairo Maggi made a point of emphasizing that Brazil does not offer any subsidy to the country’s producers and that, nonetheless, the agriculture and livestock sector has been growing consistently.
The minister reaffirmed the speech of sustainability, presenting the numbers of Embrapa Territorial, which reveal that more than 65% of the Brazilian territory is preserved by natural forests. He said that more than 20% of this total is the responsibility of the rural producers, who have tried to preserve just the places near the river banks.
The minister also spoke about the division existing in Brazil between family and business agriculture. He noted that in the case of small producers, they have specific public policies and that family farming accounts for only 16% of what is consumed internally. Regarding the inspection of Brazilian products, the minister revealed that he had made some changes in the Inspection of the MPLS and assured that the inspectors have been working to guarantee the quality of Brazilian products, both for internal and external consumption. Maggi said that the operation “Meat Poor” was a show that institutions in Brazil operate in a democratic and independent way.
Researches
In the presentation to European parliamentarians, the president of Embrapa said that the Brazilian paradigm shift in agriculture was largely due to investment in research. He spoke about the challenges faced by the country to develop agricultural production, such as the transformation of the soil of the Brazilian cerrado from weak and very acid in fertile area. Another major challenge for Embrapa researchers was to tropicalize agriculture in the country. Mauricio Lopes said that some crops, although typical of temperate regions, are now produced in areas of tropical climate thanks to climatic zoning and genetic improvement of plants.
“Climate risk agricultural zoning allows the farmer to choose the best crop to plant, in the best area and at the best time. Currently, 45 crops are totally zoned in Brazil, “said Lopes. Already the president of the CNA announced the creation of a platform that was developed to track the animals produced by the Brazilian cattle ranchers. “This platform was requested by the Ministry of Agriculture and, from it, we will be able to track any animal produced in Brazil,” he said. João Martins also revealed that the entity has projects to take technical assistance to more than 500 thousand small producers without the need to use public resources. On Wednesday (04), European parliamentarians will visit farms and a refrigerator in Mato Grosso. The visit will be accompanied by representatives of the International Relations Secretariat of the MPLS.