Mr. Andre Nepomuceno Dusi, Structuring Projects Coordinator of Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA), on Tuesday pledged the Brazilian Government’s commitment in helping to develop the agricultural capacity of African countries especially,those in the Sub-Saharan region.
EMBRAPA, an offshoot of Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, was established in 1973 to turn around Brazil’s agricultural production.
Addressing participants from six countries in Africa on the operations of EMBRAPA during a video conference organised by the World Bank in Accra, Mr. Dusi cited the provision of adequate infrastructure as the main issue that helped turn around Brazil’s agricultural production.
Participating countries included Ghana, Liberia, South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia, while those who delivered the speeches were based in Washington DC, United States.
The conference was to present experience of Brazilian corporations in agriculture, social protection, vocational and technical training.
It was premised on facts which made Brazilian technology easily adaptable to many African countries because of geophysical similarities in soil and climate.
Mr. Dusi noted that in Brazil, 12 million people were involved in subsistence farming cultivating 106.8 million hectares of land with cassava being the highest on the list of food items produced.
He said EMBRAPA had developed a strong staff qualification system and developed cutting edge technologies in agriculture which had helped boost Brazil’ s agricultural output.
“EMBRAPA has over 9,000 employees with 2,400 of them being researchers. 2,000 out of the 2,400 of the researchers are PHD holders and we have an annual budget of one billion dollars."
Mr. Dusi said EMBRAPA was involved in the selling of agricultural products and seeds, licensing of technologies and provided support to Brazilian agricultural companies abroad.
Mr. Frederico Lamego Teixera, Executive Director, National Industrial Apprenticeship Service (SENAI), a Brazilian Government corporation involved in the delivering of technical and vocational skills, said the company was operational in over 31 countries with 54 international partnerships.
He said SENAI was involved in providing technical assistance, research works, technical academic course and technology consultancy.
“SENAI support Brazilian companies working in other countries in the technical and vocational sectors by developing custom-made projects for them."
Mr. Teixera cited Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe as some of the countries where SENAI was operating in Africa, and expressed the hope of expanding its operations in Africa.**
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