Virtual event held by Embrapa and IICA will be an opportunity to share sustainable experiences on the subject and inform the United Nations Food Systems Summit More than 20 specialists from several countries will meet online during the International Week of Tropical Agriculture (AgriTrop), between March 22 and 26, from 11a.m. to 2p.m. (Brasilia time). The event, organized by Embrapa and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), aims at disseminating experiences shared by scientists, environmentalists and entrepreneurs on the sustainable use of technologies for the adaptation of agricultural and animal crops to the climate and environmental conditions of the tropical belt. Information on registration, broadcast links, schedule and lecturers are available on the event website. The expectation is that such exchange of knowledge gives rise to partnerships and synergies and inform the regional coordination of the United Nations Food Systems Summit, which has been scheduled for September, in New York. One of the highlights will be the Brazilian model, which managed to change the country from a food importer into the 1970s into one of most important players of world agriculture. Thanks to the tropicalization of agricultural and animal crops, Brazilian agriculture reached in 2021 a Gross Production Value of R$ 900 billion, which represents about 21% of the national GDP. It is responsible for 48% of the Brazilian exports - especially coffee, sugar, orange, ethanol, beef, chicken and soybeans -, and for the generation of approximately 19 million jobs in Brazil. Not to mention that it feeds over 800 million people in the world. According to the president of Embrapa, Celso Moretti, science is behind the success of agriculture. The combined efforts of the Corporation, universities, technical assistance and rural extension agencies, and other partners have enabled the Brazilian Cerrado to be currently responsible for 50% of the grains produced in the country, for instance. “Something that was considered utopian in the late 1960s and early 70s”, he comments. Another success case comes from cattle farming. Today, Brazil has the largest bovine herd in the world, with more than 200 million animals. “Agricultural science has had fruit and vegetables be traded from north to south of the country”, he adds, recalling that all of those advances were achieved with a focus on sustainability, that is, by increasing productivity without expanding agricultural areas. The proof of that is the fact that Brazil has over 500 million hectares of natural forests and about 10 million ha of planted area. For Embrapa's director of Research and Development, Guy de Capdeville, the event will be a space to strengthen and share sustainable research, development and innovation (RD&I) practices, in order to disseminate this model for other countries of the tropical belt of the Americas. “The idea is to promote synergies that aim at identifying opportunities for economic and social growth with environmental sustainability and well-being for populations”, he concludes. United Nations Food Systems Summit Manuel Otero, director general of IICA, was designated a member of the United Nations Food Systems Summit network of leaders called Summit Champions, one of the four main structures of support for the meeting, whose goal is to define the foundations for positive change in the way we produce and consume foods. “Based on the sustainable development model drawn and exported by Brazil, we intend to contribute to position tropical agriculture as a value-added proposal aimed at sustainability and the offer of alternatives for the continent, in the context of the goals outlined by the world summit”, Otero said. This event should also be the beginning of a movement for our region, Latin America and the Caribbean, so that the transformations that for decades have been taking place in the agricultural sector of Brazil can be extended, and no country is left behind in crop and livestock matters, which entails speeding up the process of transformation of agriculture in the nations of the tropical belt, most of which are net importers of food with technological delays”, he concluded. The week also aims to consolidate the supply of currently available institutional and technological innovations associated with sustainable tropical agriculture in the hemisphere, and promote the exchange of ideas so as to constitute a permanent dialogue, which encompasses multiple national, regional, international, public and private actors, as well as agencies and organisms of reference in international cooperation. Homage to Alysson Paolinelli Another feature of the International Tropical Agriculture Week is the homage to one of the main mentors and enthusiasts of such model of agriculture in Brazil, the former minister of Agriculture Alysson Paolinelli, whol will run for the Nobel Peace Prize this year. Paolinelli's trajectory is tangled with Brazilian agriculture's,since he was one of the first to believe in the potential of the Cerrado region for agricultural production. Since the 1960s, this agronomist with a degree from the Federal University of Lavras has seen science as the only path to food security in Brazil. He was one of the people responsible for the consolidation and modernization of Embrapa, when he took office in the Ministry of Agriculture between the years of 1974 and 1979. Because he is a visionary who has always encouraged research, science and technology, he implemented a scholarship program for Brazilian students in several agricultural research centers around the world. In 2006 he was awarded the World Food Prize, and equivalent to a Nobel on food, which is granted to people who have considerably helped improve the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world. Publication on land-saving technologies During the International Tropical Agriculture Week there will be the launch of a publication on land-saving technologies developed by Embrapa. They comprise systems, products and methodologies, among others, that transcend conceptual issues of sustainable development and propose actions that promote higher production of food, goods and energy, maximizing the use of limited natural resources without expanding cultivated area. They include integrated crop-livestock-forestry systems (ICLFS), which have proved to be a viable production alternative for the recovery of modified or degraded areas. These systems, which today in Brazil occupy an area over 11 million hectares, are based on integrating such components of the production system with the aim of reaching increasingly higher standard of product quality, environmental quality and competitiveness. In this sense, Biological Nitrogen Fixation is another success case. By using soil bacteria to supply plants with nitrogen, the technologyhas saved the country R$ 22 million per year in nitrogen fertilizers, and does not pollute the environment. The publication also brings other technologies that reduce the impact of the agricultural practices to the environment (e.g. no-till farming and biological pest control) and emphasize the benefits of their application in several crops of socioeconomic importance in Brazil, such as corn, soybeans, coffee and orange, among others. Further information: Virtual event: International Tropical Agriculture Week Organizers: Embrapa and IICA Dates: March 22 - 26, 2021 Information on registration, broadcast links, schedule and lecturers are available on the event website. Certificates of attendance will be issued for those who enroll prior to the event and attend at least three of the events. Attendance records will be made daily through the description in the youtube channels, in three languages (Portuguese, Spanish and English).