São Paulo – The CEO of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), Pedro Antonio Arraes Pereira, and the Egyptian ambassador to Brasília, Ahmed Hassan Ibrahim Darwish, representing the Agricultural Research Center of Egypt, signed a technical and scientific cooperation agreement today (20th). The objective is to develop sustainable agriculture in the Arab country.
“This deal among institutions will enable cooperation in several areas, such as exchange of genetic resources and germplasm, genetic improvement, genetic engineering, biotechnology, nanotechnology, technology for drought-resistant crops, and vegetable protection,” said the International Relations analyst of the Embrapa, Osório Vilela Filho, who is in charge of cooperation with the Middle East.
According to him, the agreement was the first step to kick off cooperation projects with Egypt. “Now we are going to wait and see what areas are of greater interest to Egypt, the ones they want to work on first,” claimed Vilela.
Cooperation between the two organizations should also include exchange of research on crops, mainly rice, potato, cotton, maize, soy, wheat, and horticulture (fruit and vegetables). With regard to animal breeding, the Arab country is interested in scientific information on animal husbandry, especially breeding farms.
According to Vilela, Egypt is currently the only Arab country that has an agreement with the Embrapa. “In the past, we have worked in Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon,” he said. In Iraq, Embrapa researchers worked on maize, sunflower and soy research, by means of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, from 2001 to 2003. In Palestine, the Brazilian organization cooperated in the field of vegetables, and in Lebanon, Embrapa specialists participated in a mission, in November 2006, in which they cooperated in dairy cattle farming, and vegetable and fruit irrigation.
“In the past, cooperation with the Arab countries used to be more intense, but now I believe that they are starting [to seek us] again, especially after the Summit of South American-Arab Countries. The Brazilian government has been extending the cooperation over to us (at Embrapa),” said Vilela.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
