By Maurício Rodrigues, CEO of Bayer Crop Science LatAm
One of the villains causing climate change is carbon in the atmosphere. Emissions of polluting gases cause the greenhouse effect and accelerate the dreaded process of global warming. However, while cars and machines emit carbon dioxide, plants work in the opposite direction: they capture CO² during photosynthesis and release oxygen into the atmosphere. There are good agricultural practices capable of maximizing this activity and that can be valued in the field to transform crops into great allies in climate protection.
In the upcoming 2021/22 harvest, more than 1,800 farmers in Brazil will participate in the PRO Carbono program, Bayer's Carbon initiative, which offers advantages to rural producers who want to expand their production potential and increase carbon sequestration in the soil by adopting more sustainable practices. This number represents almost five times the number registered in the initial phase of the project, launched last harvest.
Throughout the process, a carbon ecosystem will be built in Brazilian agriculture based on science, cutting-edge technology and collaboration. The goal is to offer producers an economically attractive model for carbon sequestration, while developing solutions to address technical, scientific and methodological challenges related to carbon measurement and credit generation in agriculture.
More than 215,000 hectares will be cultivated, mostly with soybeans and corn, on properties spread across 16 Brazilian states that will be part of the program. Throughout each cycle, soil samples will be collected for analysis and farmers will be able to count on recommendations from around 70 consultants for sustainable management practices. Rural producers and agriculture are among the most affected by extreme climate change and lack of access to resources. There is a growing interest in making agriculture part of the solution to the challenges that humanity faces today and a visible commitment to initiatives that allow for sustainable gains in productivity.
To be part of the program, the applicants passed socio-environmental analyses and are all also users of the Plus license of Climate FieldView, Bayer's digital agriculture platform used for data collection, analysis and traceability. To overcome the challenges inherent to an unprecedented initiative like PRO Carbon, Bayer relies on partners such as Embrapa, through three research centers (Embrapa Agricultural Informatics, Embrapa Instrumentation and Embrapa Environment), the Brazilian Federation of Direct Planting Systems, startups and a team of academic experts, linked to renowned institutions such as Esalq/USP, Unesp, UEPG, UFRGS and UFMG.
