Ethiopia has suffered with the acidity of 40% of its soils, a similar scenario to the one faced by the Brazilian Cerrado in the 1970s and 1980s. A project coordinated by the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC) involving Embrapa Soils (Rio de Janeiro, RJ) and the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), is going to tackle the issue using the national expertise that has turned the Cerrados into highly productive lands. A Meeting at ABC, in Brasilia, on March 25, aimed to define the technological foundations for acid soil correction in the African country using limestone. “The problem is that there is no commercial availability or production of limestone for agricultural purposes there. There are several high-quality occurrences of the element, it is just that it has not been explored yet to that end”, reports the head of research and development of Embrapa Soils, Vinicius Benites, who was at the meeting in Brasilia. The project coordinated by ABC includes four main points. The first one is the mapping of limestone availability in Ethiopia, followed by the characterization of the limestone rocks, in partnership with CETEM, bringing samples and geologists; after that, the intention is to perform liming “calibration”, through incubation, in order to determine the ideal dose of limestone to be applied in the lands; the third goal is to elaborate a manual of good practices for the use of limestone using the Brazilian experience; finally, there will be field days at demonstration units in order to show rural dwellers productivity gains obtained with the practice of liming. “Moving the project forward does not depend only on Embrapa, it also needs to be internalized in the Ethiopian government and there need to be conditions to have limestone be well-distributed in the country, so that it reaches farers”, Benites underscores. Trade By helping the correct application of limestone in Ethiopia, the Brazilian technology transfer paves the way for greater trade relations between the countries, as it creates a demand for soil analysis, which can count on the Brazilian technology that developed SpecSolo, for instance; and also for exporting machinery manufactured in Brazil for the production and distribution of limestone. Teams from Embrapa Soils have been to Ethiopia twice, and the expectation is that the project is approved during the first half of the year, starting activities by July. The first action stipulates the visit of African technicians to Brazil to learn from our experience. Translation: Mariana Medeiros