São Paulo – This month in the Brazilian federal capital, Instituto Federal de Brasília (IFB, a state-owned educational facility) is welcoming 19 Sudanese professors for a course in agriculture. They arrived in Brazil last Saturday (03) and started sitting classes in “Special topics in agriculture for technical and technological teaching” last Monday (05). The program lasts 160 hours and will end on January 30th.
According to IFB international advisor Edna Carvalho de Azevedo, the institute’s partnership with Sudan dates back to 2011. Since then, ministers from the Arab country have visited Brasília and convened with IFB delegates. The institute’s dean, Wilson Conciani, has been to Sudan. “This course was tailored after Sudan’s demand and designed to meet these professors’ needs,” Azevedo said.
The professors currently in Brazil include graduate and master’s degree and PhD holders in agriculture-related fields from all regions within the Arab country. They have been selected by the Sudanese government, which met their air travel costs. For its part, the IFB is offering the actual course, lodging and food.
The educators will take lessons in agrarian sciences with an emphasis on mechanization, agricultural production systems, and agroecological education (focusing on productivity and ecosystems preservation), soil handling and conservation, and goat and sheep farming. The course was designed for professors. Back in their country, the educators will pass the newly-acquired knowledge to their peers.
The Sudanese ambassador to Brasília, Abd Elghani Elnaim Awad Elkarim, said climate and farming conditions are alike in Brazil and Sudan, and that, therefore, the two countries are cooperating in agriculture. “Brazil has the working knowledge in agriculture. In turn, Sudan has great potential to tap into when it comes to agriculture. Some partnerships are already in place in Sudan, in areas such as sugarcane,” he remarked.
The diplomat also said one of the sectors that can potentially benefit from the course is family farming. “Roughly 80% of all farmers in Sudan are small-scale. Brazil’s experience is very useful to us,” Elkarim asserted.
The IFB was established in 2008, is part of Rede Federal de Educação Profissional, Científica e Tecnológica (the Federal Network for Professional, Scientific and Technological Education), and offers training courses to workers, research and extension projects etc. The Sudanese professors will take their classes at the Planaltina campus, one of the IFB’s eight campi.
The partnership between the IFB and Sudan is expected to breed other projects in the future. According to Edna Azevedo, following this course, results will be assessed and a distance learning project targeting Sudanese professors will be developed. “The goal is to get to know them and then follow up with this action,” she said. Plans also include other mutual visits between Sudan and Brazil.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
