SAO PAULO - Nine research projects of Embrapa, all of which focused on national agriculture, will benefit from the funds, in the amount of R$ 5.9 million, assigned by Monsanto to Embrapa-Monsanto Research Funds. The sum derives from the sharing of the intellectual property rights, payable as royalties, over the commercialization of Embrapa's soybean varieties containing Roundup Ready(R) technology in 2009/2010 season.
The initiatives supported include studies related to popular crops in Brazil, such as beans (achievement of resistance against White Mold by means of genetic engineering), rice (transformation by genes related to drought tolerance and increased yield potential) and sugarcane (search for genes for genetic improvement aimed at drought tolerance). The resources will be invested in Embrapa research projects, chosen by the managing committee of the Research Fund held by Monsanto in partnership with Embrapa.
The announcement was made on November 29th at a ceremony held at Embrapa Rice and Beans, Santo Antonio de Goias (GO). Monsanto has already assigned to the Research Fund, between 2006 and the present year, over $25 million that benefited dozens of projects, mostly in biotechnology, from various units of Embrapa.
"Because of the growing agricultural demands, it takes a joint effort so that we can produce more, conserve more and improve the lives of those who work in agriculture and of the entire population who consume the products from field. In line with such focus, we are deeply proud to have Embrapa as our partner, a global benchmark in the development of agricultural research," states Andre Dias, president of Monsanto in Brazil.
For Embrapa, the partnership with Monsanto is strategic. "Agreements like these, focused on agricultural research and innovation, are essential, and are in line with the government priorities, as it reunites public and private sectors to face the global challenge of increasing agricultural yield in a sustainable way," completes the executive director of Embrapa, Jose Geraldo Eugenio de Franca, who honored the event for the assignment of the Fund alongside the head of the Embrapa Rice and Beans, Pedro Machado, and some of the researchers who will be granted funds this year.
Projects contemplated
The resources assigned will contemplate the following of Embrapa's research projects:
1) White-mold resistant beans via genetic engineering;
2) Improvement of conventional cotton resistant to root-knot
nematodes;
3) Development of data platform on Brazilian biomes;
4) Study of the environmental impact of Bt corn on the entomofauna,
soil microbes and grain production;
5) Containment and tracing program for the development of
glyphosate-tolerant and insect-resistant cotton genotypes;
6) Identification of glyphosate-resistant weeds;
7) Formulation of biopesticides based on viruses, fungi and
bacteria to control the fall armyworm;
8) Transformation of rice with genes related to drought tolerance
and increased yield potential;
9) Search for sugarcane genes for genetic improvement aiming at
drought tolerance.
About Monsanto
Monsanto is a company dedicated to agriculture. Pioneer in the development of products with state-of-the-art technology in the agricultural area - herbicides, conventional and genetically modified seeds - Monsanto seeks for sustainable solutions that allow farmers to produce more with fewer resources. To achieve this goal, Monsanto invests over US$ 1 billion, annually, in the research and development of new products, and shares its expertise with farmers to increase their access to modern farming technologies, especially in poor and developing countries.
Monsanto has been in Brazil since 1963. In 2009 the company addressed R$ 9.4 million to socio-environmental projects throughout Brazil, held in 90 cities, of 12 Brazilian states. In the whole, more than 700 thousand people benefited from these grants. In the sustainability field, Monsanto's projects promoted 250 lectures on environment awareness, sponsored the free distribution of 30 thousand books and planting of 3 thousand trees, involving the participation of 47 thousand children.
Monsanto profited R$ 2.021 billion in Brazil in 2009, producing and marketing the line of herbicides Roundup, conventional soybean seeds (Monsoy) and genetically modified seeds (Roundup Ready(R)), conventional and genetically modified corn seeds (Agroeste, Sementes Agroceres and Dekalb), sorghum and cotton seeds (Deltapine), and, also, green vegetable seeds (Seminis and De Ruiter). In November 2008, Monsanto started to operate in the sugarcane market, with the acquisition of the companies Canavialis and Alellyx, of Votorantim Group. In February 2009, Monsanto acquired the remaining 49% of MDM, reinforcing its position in the cotton market.
About Embrapa
Embrapa operates through Research and Service Units as well as Administrative Units, being present in almost all States do the Federation in the most diverse Brazilian biomes.
In order to help build Brazilian leadership in tropical farming, the Company invested, above all in the training of human resources; it currently has 8,944 employees, 2,024 of whom are researchers - 21% with masters degree, 71% with PhD and 7% with postdoctoral degree. The Company budget for 2010 is R$ 1,863 billion.
Under its coordination is the Sistema Nacional de Pesquisa Agropecuaria - SNPA [National Agriculture and Livestock Research System], which is comprised of federal and state public institutions, universities, private companies and foundations, which, through a cooperative effort, perform studies in different geographic areas and scientific knowledge fields.
Technologies delivered by SNPA have changed Brazilian agriculture. A set of technologies for the incorporation of the Cerrados in the productive system rendered the region responsible for 67.8 million tons, that is, 48.5% of Brazilian production (2008). Soybean was adapted to Brazilian conditions and currently Brazil is the world's second producer. The offer of bovine and swine meat quadrupled while poultry increased 22 times (period 1975/2009). Milk production increased from 7.9 billion in 1975 to 27.6 billion liters, in 2008; and Brazilian production of green vegetables went from 9 million tons, in an area of 771.36 thousand hectares, to 19.3 million tons, in 808 thousand hectares, in 2008. Moreover, specific research programs managed to organize technologies and production systems to increase the efficiency of family farming and to bring small farmers to the agribusiness, securing them better income and wellbeing.
