Agriculture 4.0 and the role of innovation in overcoming the challenges posed by climate change were discussed in one of the panels at the CEBDS Seminar, held on the 5th, in São Paulo.
Participating in the panel are Luiz Roberto Barcelos, president of the National Fruit Commission of the CNA; Alessandra Fajardo, director of Bayer; Percival Lucena, Blockchain leader at IBM Brazil; Julia Moretti, Sustainability manager at COFCO; and Luiz Cornachioni, executive director of Abag, who mediated the debate.
Climate change represents an unprecedented challenge for governments, the private sector, academia and civil society. The latest report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was scathing: unprecedented changes are needed to limit the average increase in global Earth surface temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Committed to building solutions with the private sector, CEBDS turned its attention to the agribusiness chain, from production to the final consumer.
Adding indirect emissions, from deforestation, and direct emissions, Brazilian agribusiness is responsible for 71% of the country's total emissions, and is at the center of the nationally determined contribution (NDC) to the Paris Agreement, which includes recovering more than 15 million degraded pastures and reforesting another 12 million hectares, in addition to reducing illegal deforestation to zero by 2030.
The main source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the country and one of the most impacted by the effects of climate change, the agribusiness chain faces the huge challenge of reconciling GHG mitigation measures with increased production and food supply for the population.
Phytosanitary problems, changes in the geography of crops, extreme events such as droughts and storms, loss of pollinators and abrupt changes in the water regime are some of the practical and local effects of climate change. Of all these, one thing is certain: they are alarming risks to the survival of Brazilian agribusiness.
In this context, which at first sounds discouraging, new initiatives seek to promote the insertion of climate intelligence, that is, how to make the sector more resilient to climate change, in the agriculture and food sector with the aim of increasing the availability of nutritious food by 50%, while reducing GHG emissions by 50%.
“Bayer is creating a global sustainability committee, with experts and stakeholders, in search of new ideas and challenges. In this sense, we are trying to bring the solution to produce more in a better way”, said Alessandra Fajardo, from Bayer.
Adaptation to climate change
Coordinated by the Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development (CEBDS), the Agroclimatic Intelligence (IAC) promotes crop adaptation to climate change and seeks to reduce GHG emissions, while developing resilience and increasing productivity. The project is based on the principle that it is necessary to ensure nutritious food for a growing population of global markets and unsustainable habits.
“The use of advanced technology enables better use of resources. The agricultural sector is one of the sectors in Brazil that can benefit most from information technology to improve processes and do more with less,” noted Percival Lucena, from IBM Brazil.
One of the conclusions during the debate was that it is not only necessary to increase productivity, but to reduce losses and waste after harvesting, promote a change in habits, rethink regulatory frameworks and economic incentives, develop a production base that generates a positive environmental and social impact and build a value chain for new bioeconomy products.
“More than 20% of fruit is wasted because it is not attractive. We need to change this mentality. This harms producers, who need to take up more space to produce,” said Luiz Roberto Barcelos, from Abrafrutas.
Reconciling the impacts of climate change with increased food production and supply is the challenge for the agricultural chain from now on. One possible instrument is Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) for research, development, demonstration and launch of technologies.
It is necessary to recognize common challenges and prepare to increase the capacity to overcome adversities. An integrated vision of the chain on risks, opportunities and solutions is essential to make the food system as a whole even stronger for this uncertain future. Many of the challenges are shared among the different links in this chain and many of the solutions, existing and future, can significantly increase the individual potential of each one.
“We only expand to regions where it is possible to plant soy and in accordance with our sustainability standards. We take the impact seriously and analyze the CNPJ of our suppliers and the restrictions of the farm areas we use,” said Julia Moretti, from COFCO.
Resilient food systems in Brazil
These topics were the subject of debates during a workshop held by CEBDS in June of this year, which brought together several links in the food production chain in São Paulo. The results of the meeting were published in the work Resilient Food Systems in Brazil.
