The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a specialized agency of the United Nations, is going to analyze the project proposals from the program Aliança para Inovação Agropecuária no Meio-Norte (Alliance for Agricultural Innovation in the Brazilian Mid-North), in the areas of fruit cropping, natural resource management, and goat and sheep farming. The fund is interested in funding research projects aimed at technological innovation, access to quality water, and human development in the states of Piauí and Maranhão. The idea was presented on Thursday, August 24, in the morning, by fund technicians to the general head of Embrapa Mid-North, Luiz Fernando Leite; and to the coordinator of the Piauí Government's Viva Semiárido Program, Francisco das Chagas Ribeiro Filho. IFAD's technicians emphasized that the institution's main concern regarding the future project is in the sustainability of production systems. “We know that Embrapa shares such concern”, underscored Emmanuel Bayle, one of the fund's advisors. While providing assurances that Embrapa has “intellectual capital” for several of project agendas, Luiz Fernando Leite embraced IFAD's ideas, confirming that the institution is interested in participating in the programs jointly with the Piauí Government. “We have a portfolio of integrated production technologies that does not reach smallholders. Some of our processes have been frozen due to the lack of funds”, he informed. Embrapa Mid-North's deputy head of Technology Transfer, Oscar Lustosa Júnior, recalled during the meeting that the institution has a capacity-building program for technicians and smallholders, and new learning units can be created with IFAD's financial support. The project to train technological information multiplication agents in 15 family farmer schools in Piauí and in 17 in Maranhão, led by Embrapa Mid-North, was mentioned in the meeting as a success case. Such schools, according to the researcher Bruno Souza, would then be reference centers in learning agricultural techniques. With headquarters in Rome, Italy, the aim of the fund is to directly finance programs that promote smallholders' economic development in poor rural areas through increased agricultural productivity. There are nearly 200 country members of IFAD. In Brazil, Embrapa has previously worked with the fund through projects like the MKTPlace. Translation: Mariana Medeiros