Africa seeks cooperation from Latin America and the Caribbean in export development, soil recovery and reforestation
Leadership in exports and production
The Alliance for the Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), which operates in 11 countries on that continent and promotes agricultural transformation that increases producer income and improves food security, identified Brazil's tropical agriculture model and its leadership in exports from the meat and soybean sector, soil recovery and reforestation, as the areas in which Africa can obtain cooperation from Latin America and the Caribbean for its development.
The proposal was made by Fadel Ndiame, vice president of AGRA, during his participation in the International Week of Tropical Agriculture, organized by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Company (Embrapa) and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) to share experiences of researchers and entrepreneurs in the sustainable use of technologies for the adaptation of agriculture to the climatic and environmental conditions of the tropics.
Inclusive Agricultural Transformation
In this sense, the representative of AGRA, an organization that was founded in 2006 under the leadership of former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and that seeks to catalyze an inclusive agricultural transformation in Africa, increasing income and improving food security for 30 million agricultural households in 11 countries, expressed interest in establishing South-South Cooperation with Latin America and the Caribbean, especially in terms of Brazil's tropical agriculture model, soil recovery, leadership in exports in the meat and soybean sector, and reforestation, among others.
“We are very interested in opportunities for South-South Cooperation in the recovery of millions of hectares of acid soils, exploring development models, the tropical model of Brazil that is very different from ours, we are interested in the exchange of knowledge regarding how Brazil is has become one of the five most important food exporters, especially in the meat and soybean sector, exploring the opportunity to work in reforestation, rehabilitating land and ecosystem services," said Ndiame, a sociologist with more than 30 years of experience. in agricultural and economic development policies and programs.
The collaboration of Brazil
The African leader also identified Embrapa's experience developing research in the Cerrado, the second largest biome (set of ecosystems that have similar climate, fauna and flora) in Brazil as another point of collaboration. It is a savannah with a tropical climate with the greatest biodiversity in the world (5% of the animals and plants on the entire planet).
The Cerrado is also an important source of water in the country due to the fact that there are the main springs that feed eight of the 12 hydrographic regions of the nation. In addition, it has soils that can store a large amount of carbon and although they naturally have low fertility, technological advances have increased productivity for agriculture and livestock.
A sustainable food system
In the International Week of Tropical Agriculture, subsidies were also collected for the consolidation of a convergent position of the Americas towards the Summit on Food Systems convened by the United Nations (UN) for the end of September in New York.
Ndiame said that the Summit will be the pillar to move towards sustainability and promote healthier diets, although he indicated that each country and continent must mark its own path towards a sustainable food system.
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