São Paulo – Next year, a domestic research effort should start operating in order to strengthen the Brazilian fertiliser industry. The Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) is going to inaugurate a network, named FertBrasil, consisting of the institution itself, plus other research organisations and the private initiative, so as to find technological solutions for fertilizer manufacturing and consumption in the country.
Brazil is one of the leading grain-producing countries in the world and imports roughly 70% of the fertilisers used in its crops. Last year, for instance, the product’s scarcity and high pricing on the global market created problems for national agriculture.
Precisely for that reason, researchers have decided to do their part. The FertBrasil network has already been created, as part of Embrapa’s Growth Acceleration Program (PAC), and should come to being in 2010, according to the program coordinator Embrapa Soils researcher, Vinicius Benites.
The network will operate on many fronts. At first, it should function as a factory of technology, generating new solutions for the industry. These technologies will be evaluated in the field, over the course of three crops, and also from the environmental impact perspective. Then, the technologies will be transferred to the industry.
The project, explains Benites, should receive investment of 3 million reals (US$ 1.6 million) from Embrapa during three years. The funds will come from the PAC. Additional funding will be sought from research incentive funds and private companies. The idea is for investment to be made by the project’s partner companies themselves, so that they may use the technologies afterwards.
According to the Embrapa Soils researcher, there already are 18 companies associated with the project, among them Bunge, Mosaic, Petrobras and the International Potash Institute. The project has the support of the National Association for the Promotion of Fertilizers and Lime (Anda) and of the Association of Organic Fertilizer Industries (Abisolo).
The actual research phase is going to cover many areas. One will be identifying alternative fertilisers, such as those made from organic and industrial residue. Technologies will also be sought for improving the quality of already existing fertilisers so that, for instance, they can be absorbed better by plants, thus reducing losses. In a third phase, techniques will be pursued and transferred for efficient use of fertilisers by farmers. The latter case includes the best periods and ways to apply the products.
Althoug Benites, from Embrapa Soils, is the coordinator, 14 units of Embrapa are involved in the project. For each technology to be studied – the program already includes 22 different ones – there is a tutor, from the research area, and at least one company interested in using the product. The partnership with the private initiative was established precisely so that research may yield actual results.
According to the coordinator of FertBrasil, the goal is to place the products on the market by 2013, the fourth year of the project, when 800 million reals (US$ 446.5 million) should be generated. The figure, according to Benites, should originate both from the sale of the products and the savings that they will enable.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
