MCTI, FINEP invest R$36 million, call for innovation in sustainable pesticides in Brazil

The Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI) and FINEP, a public company in the portfolio, launched, on Wednesday, 15th June, a public selection that will invest R$36 million in promoting innovation for sustainable agricultural pesticides, bio-inputs and fertilizers. The funds come from the National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development (FNDCT) and are part of a strategy in line with CT Agro, a sectoral fund linked to the FNDCT for Agribusiness.

The initiative is expected to encourage companies to launch strategic projects aimed at expanding options for plant nutrition and phytosanitary control and management in the country, through products that have low impact on the environment and are low risk to human health.

Brazilian companies with proven experience in the production of agricultural inputs of any size can participate, both individually or jointly. The economic subsidy will provide resources worth R$2 million to R$4 million per project.

“This was a demand from colleagues at the Ministry of Agriculture, together with our secretary for Research and Scientific Training, Marcelo Morales. We are talking about a strategic segment that has a considerably strong impact on the bioeconomy,” declared Paulo Alvim, Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation.

Participating remotely, Marcelo Morales, secretary of Research and Scientific Training of the MCTI, stressed that the launch of the public call is a response from the federal government. “There are huge challenges that we need to overcome in the country in the areas of fertilizers, plant nutrition and crop protection products. National fertilizer production is historically much lower than domestic demand. The great challenge, which can be overcome with the help of robust research, development and innovation strategies, will be to reduce external dependence on fertilizers,” affirmed Morales, who explained that the country should not be dependent on fertilizer exports.

“To achieve this objective, it is necessary to increase investment in ST&I and encourage the creation of integrated programs to sustain competitiveness, as well as to guarantee the leadership of Brazilian agribusiness, by increasing the efficiency of the use of fertilizers and, consequently, reducing their allocation in the costs of agricultural production,” he added.

Alessandro Cruvinel, general coordinator of Mechanization, New Technologies and Genetic Resources at the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply, praised the National Bioinputs Program of MAPA, which has been running for two years. “It is a recent program, but Brazil is already positioning itself in a very strategic way in this segment. The use of bioinputs has grown impressively in the country at a rate above 40%. To give you an idea, in the plant protection segment, 5% of what is used in crops already comes from bioinputs, and this is expanding in growth. This has caught the attention of the entire world. With initiatives like this call, Brazil has taken the lead in structuring and developing the sector,” he said.