The Brazilian Minister for Agriculture, Livestock and Supplies, Mr. Mendes Ribeiro Filho, is meeting this Wednesday, June 20, with Ministers and Representatives of the agricultural area from over 20 countries. The meeting happened at Forte de Copacabana as part of the side-program for the United Nations Conference for Sustainable Development, Rio +20.

The main event had the attendance of Ministers from countries such as Argentina, Uruguay and China. The Minister highlighted Brazil’s role as a sustainable reference to the world, especially with incentives to the use agricultural practices such as the Planting Direct on Straw (plantio direto na palha ) and the integration Farming-Livestock-Forrest (integração Lavoura-Pecuária-Floresta), that comes from a program called Low Carbon Emission  Agricultural Program. This initiative from the Brazilian Government finances actions that help reduce GHG emissions in the atmosphere.

Mr. Mendes also presented to the authorities data on the reduction of deforestation, specially at the Amazon Biome in over 23 years (81% of the Amazon forest is preserved) and the reduction of 67% of GHG emissions. “Brazil reached a new level on sustainable production”, he said.

EMBRAPA’s (Brasilian Company for Agriculture and Livestock Research) president, Mr. Pedro Arraes, presented the authorities EMBRAPA’s work on the development of new technologies on this subject, specially the partnerships already existing with research centers from various countries.

“We have been realizing the interest of several countries on knowing Brazilian’s productive systems and the work developed by EMBRAPA. We will increase the number of partnerships in order to bring them to other nations – especially the poorest ones – the technologies developed in Brazil to expand production while preserving the environment” said Mr. Arraes.

Prior to the opening of the event, Mr. Mendes Ribeiro Filho had bilateral meetings with the Agriculture Ministers of Finland, Mr. Jari Koskinen, and Hungary, Mr. Sandor Fazekas. In these meetings partnerships between these countries in the Agriculture and Livestock areas were discussed, aiming at exchanging field applicable sustainable experiences and technologies.

“EMBRAPA is one of the biggest in the world on this field and we put ourselves  available to send our  staff abroad as well as welcoming foreign researchers,” affirmed Mr. Mendes Ribeiro Filho. 

This thurday, June 21, the Minister continues to welcome international authorities of the Agriculture and Livestock field at EMBRAPA Solos. At 9 am, Mr. Mendes will meet with the European Union Commissary for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Dacian Ciolos, when a memorandum of understanding should be signed. He is also meeting with China’s Minister for Agriculture, Mr. Han Changfu, at 10 am.