São Paulo – Technicians from 28 African countries are in Brazil to participate in the second edition of the "Brazil-Africa Dialogue on Food Safety, Hunger Alleviation and Rural Development", promoted by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa). From April 4th to 15th, professionals will undergo technical training about food production in Brazil, especially turned to the cultivation of soy and maize. Among the professionals participating are six technicians from Arab countries.
Coordination of the project is under the Brazilian Cooperation Agency, an organisation connected to the Brazilian Foreign Office (Itamaraty), with the support of the Ministries of Agrarian Development, Fisheries, Supply and Social Development.
From North Africa, professionals will come from Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Mauritania, Sudan and Tunisia. In all, the programme should train 49 participants in two modules.
The first, for 40 hours, will focus on "Agriculture: An Engine for Economic and Social Development", and should trace the trajectory of agriculture in Brazil, explained Guida Gorga, the executive coordinator of the course, which is being organised by Embrapa Studies and Training, as part of the Brazil-Africa Dialogue Program.
"We will show the man, the rural worker, and also the production geography, the political and social organisation, the public policies and the importance of agricultural research for the development of agriculture," she explained.
According to Guida, the African savannahs have very similar conditions to the Brazilian cerrado, a point to be emphasized during the course, aiming at bringing the realities of both regions closer.
On the practical side of the course, which will take 40 hours, the participants will be divided into two groups, one including 25 technicians heading to Sete Lagoas, in Minas Gerais, for training in "Maize production system for small rural properties, community production of maize seeds and the system for collection and conservation of water at rural properties", and a second group, of 24 members, to participate in the "Soy Cultivation" module, in Londrina, Paraná.
According to the Embrapa coordinator, the areas in which these professionals showed themselves needier were in the area of "agricultural and technological research, seed genetics and adequacy of climate, soil and equipment." All of the participants of the course are connected, in their countries, to the Ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development, as well as agricultural research centres, agrarian investigation, rural extension institutes and universities.
History
The "Brazil-Africa Dialogue on Food Safety, Hunger Alleviation and Rural Development" programme was launched after participation of then-Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the African Union’s Sirte Summit, in Libya, in 2009. The objective is to promote greater cooperation between both regions in the area of food production.
In 2010, Embrapa promoted the first phase of the training course, which included 42 technicians from 24 African countries. According to Guida Gorga, "due to the success of the course, a third edition of the event should take place by the end of this year".
Among the participants of this edition, apart from technicians in the Arab countries, there should also be representatives from South Africa, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Eritrea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Saint Thomas and Príncipe, Senegal, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
*Translated by Mark Ament
