One of the certainties about the future of humanity is that it will continue to grow. The United Nations estimates that there will be 9.5 billion people on the planet by 2050. How are we going to feed all these people? Whatever the ans-wer is, there is another certainty: Brazil will play a crucial role in this global effort.
“The increased demand for food is inexorable, and few countries are able to cope with it. Brazil is probably in the best position to face this challenge,” said Roberto Jaguaribe, president of the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil). Jaguaribe was one of the members of the panel on “Feeding the world: invest-ment opportunities in the context of industry 4.0”, held on the Brasil Investment Forum 2018 in São Paulo.
With only 7.8% of its territory occupied by agriculture, the country can greatly expand agricultural production by using degraded pasture areas alone – and by increasing productivity in currently-used acreage with better technologies. Another competitive advantage is the fact that Brazil holds 14% of the world’s freshwater reserves.
Brazil is a key country, for example, for German pharmaceutical and chemical company Bayer, for which agribusiness is a key market. And that’s not only because of the vast supply of land and water. “We have a very skilled workforce here in agriculture,” said Besaliel Botelho, president of the company for Latin America.
Brazil’s training efforts are also expanding beyond the domestic market. “By the end of the year, we are going to increase the number of Brazilian attachés specializing in agribusiness. In addition to exporting food, the country also needs to work more closely with our trade partners, to ha-ve better post-sale,” said Agriculture Minister Blairo Maggi.
Source: BrazilGovNews