🔬 Research funding down

Hello! Welcome to Brazil Agro. Today, we look into the financial struggles of the company that turned Brazil into a major food producer. If you have any questions about this newsletter or topics you’d like to see covered in future issues, you can reach me at [email protected] 

Brazil's agricultural research giant faces a budget crisis

You cannot tell the story of how Brazil became an agricultural powerhouse without mentioning Embrapa, the country's 52-year-old federal agricultural research company.

The institution was instrumental in transforming Brazil into one of the world's leading food producers, adapting foreign species to local soil and climate conditions, developing what experts call “tropical agriculture” and reducing food insecurity in a nation once plagued by hunger.

Yet even as Embrapa’s legacy is celebrated, the institution is grappling with profound fiscal challenges. Over the past decade, public investment in research and non-personnel expenses has plummeted by as much as 80%, which has forced the agency to rethink its operating model. 

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