Representatives of Embrapa (Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa AgrÀcola – Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation) met on Friday, March 2, in Brazilian capital BrasÀlia, with diplomats of 18 African embassies to present the objectives of the organization's new office in Africa.
"We want to associate ourselves with the African countries. We want to make agreements for cooperation in the area of technology transfer for tropical agriculture," stated the acting head of the international area at Embrapa, Washington Silva.
According to the councilor of the Tunisian embassy, Ridha Bouguerra, who participated in the event, the opening of the office in Ghana is very important.
I believe that all this centralization of activities in the African country will be very positive. The office is going to bring Brazil even closer to the African countries," he said.
The Embrapa Africa office is an initiative in the Brazilian policy to transfer agricultural technology to the African nations.
Since December last year, when the office was opened in the city of Acra, researchers of the International Cooperation Advisory at the Embrapa have been discussing ways to promote the use of Brazilian technology to generate growth, reduce social inequality, fight hunger and poverty and work with small farmers for a sustainable cycle.
"The African countries need Brazilian help in the area of research and technology transfer to help in the development of the continent," stated Bouguerra.
He said that Tunisia already works in cooperation with the Embrapa in the area of forestry research. Last year, Brazilian researchers travelled to the Arab country to develop a project in the area of growing and management of eucalyptus for the purpose of extraction of wood.
According to Silva, there is already sufficient demand in the African countries for cooperation agreements to be developed. "The ambassadors showed interest and inquired about how to proceed to have Embrapa services," he said. The meeting also served to schedule the beginning of dialogue to establish strategies for the strengthening of relations between Brazil and the African countries.
The opening of the meeting was by the director general at Embrapa, Silvio Crestana, who addressed the need to transfer technology in the short term, including the use of constant planting to increase production and productivity, also opening doors to the machinery and equipment market.
Apart from Diplomats learning about the operational model of the new unit, they could also learn a little more about the work developed by Embrapa. A representative of another Arab country was also present, Morocco.
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