The Agricultural and Livestock Plan 2014/2015 calls for R$ 1.7 billion to be made available to farmers within the Program for Agricultural Production Innovation Incentives (Inovagro), at a subsidized interest rate of 4% per year. Producers can obtain up to R$ 1 million individually. The range of eligible items includes assistance such as consulting services to purchase machinery and equipment designed to implement innovation and adoption of new technologies. Inovagro creates a virtuous circle: an incentive to expand technology on farm properties, which increases competitiveness and thus practically pays for the investment.

Check out the items that can be funded through the Inovagro line:

• Acquisition, installation and refurbishment of equipment and facilities for crop protection inherent in the herb growing, fruit farming, floriculture and coffee segments.
• Precision agriculture services, from initial soil sampling planning to the generation of maps showing where to apply fertilizer and lime.
• Machinery and equipment for automation and adjustment to the poultry, swine and dairy cattle segments.
• Computer programs for management, monitoring or automation.
• Consultants for training technical and managerial skills for farm production activities.
• Acquisition of genetic material (semen and embryos), from donors with a certificate of registration and performance evaluation or, alternatively, for beef cattle, the Special Certificate of Production Identification (Ceip).
• Items and projects related to PI-Brazil Integrated Agricultural/Livestock Production and Animal Welfare Systems, and the Secure Food programs of the various supply chains, along with Good Beef and Dairy Cattle Agricultural Practices.
• Items or products developed under the Technological Innovation Program (Inova-Empresa).
• Technical assistance for the preparation, establishment, monitoring and implementation of the project, limited to four percent (4%) of total funding.

Also in Embrapa’s portfolio are innovative research projects into bioenergy, such as 2nd generation ethanol (deriving from bagasse and sugarcane straw), technologies for the restructuring of agricultural/livestock activities in dry periods and development of varieties plants genetically resistant to pests.

Among the most notable achievements of the state company was cloning the heifer Victoria, the first bovine clone in Latin America in 2001, the sequencing of the coffee genome and the development of a bean resistant to the golden mosaic virus, both in 2011.

To learn more: Embrapa 40 years Hotsite.

• The New Directions. Statement by Embrapa president Maurício Lopes Antonio